Explaining Juvenile Justice and Lifetime Sentencing In a Moral Society

Youth under the age of 18 can receive life sentences including life without the possibility of parole (in 11 states as young as 8).

In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional as they violate the 8th Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
The Court left open the possibility for judges to impose discretionary life without parole sentences on juveniles convicted of homicide, after considering mitigating factors like age, and circumstances.
In 2016, there were approximately 2,310 children and juveniles serving LWOP sentences for crimes committed as juveniles across the U.S.
As of 2021, around 300 children and juveniles were incarcerated in adult prisons after being prosecuted as adults.
In addition to Life Without Parole, many juveniles receive life sentences with the possibility of parole after serving a set number of years (typically 25-50 years).
In 2021, there were around 7,346 individuals serving life with parole sentences for crimes committed as juveniles.

The U.S. has reduced the number of children and juveniles charged as adults from over 250,000 in the early 2000’s (annually) to about 53,000 today.

Today, 11 states (Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia) have no minimum age set for trying children as adults. Children eight years old can be and have been charged as adults in many of these states.

Prisons are a dangerous place for young people. Children in adult prisons are raped and beaten at 3 to 5X the rate of adults. They are often placed in solitary confinement for extended periods, which is extremely traumatizing to young people and creates a lifetime of serious mental health issues for most of them.

Adult facilities are rarely equipped to provide adequate educational resources, mental health services, and rehabilitative programs tailored for children and adolescents. This disrupts their development and the makes crime and violence of hardened adult incarceration a concrete part of life for them.

Children incarcerated in adult facilities have significantly worse physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood compared to those processed through the juvenile system. This includes higher rates of hypertension, obesity, functional limitations, and psychiatric disorders later in life.

Youth prosecuted as adults have higher rates of re-arrest and reincarceration compared to those who remain in the juvenile justice system. The stigma and trauma of adult incarceration make it more difficult for them to reintegrate into society successfully. America has maintained an overall nine year recidivism rate of about 80% for over a decade.

Youth of color, particularly Black children, are disproportionately charged as adults and face harsher treatment within the adult system compared to their white peers, perpetuating systemic racial injustices.

None of this suggests that you or I, or the nation benefits from an institution creating more discrimination, broken people, crime, and criminals.

Minnesota’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz has stated that

“the difference between that poor child and a felon is about eight years”.

Justice Blatz is referring to the sad fact that children raised in toxic homes suffer from the traumas of child abuse. Childhood trauma impacts brain development and creates mental health and behavior problems that last a lifetime if left untreated – turning broken children into broken adults.

This CASA volunteer Guardian ad Litem understands the pull of the punishment model and the public need for retribution. Economically, socially, and morally we all lose when children don’t have the support of a community to escape from their toxic homes and find the healing and skill building they need to live a productive life.

The mix of articles gathered below give a snapshot of what’s happening around the nation in the area of juvenile justice.

Raise the Age revision: Teens charges with violent automatically tried as adults – WRAL.com

WRAL.com

Lawmakers voted to adjust the Raise the Age law. Many 16- and 17-year-olds will once again automatically be tried as adults in North Carolina.

Explaining Juvenile Justice and Lifetime Sentencing In a Moral Society

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Author: Mike Tikkanen