The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth

Re: No Remorse

Intern — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:56:39 +0000

By Jeffrey Shook, The New Yorker

A letter in response to Rachel Aviv’s article (January 2, 2012)

Rachel Aviv’s article about Dakotah Eliason and his trial as an adult for first-degree murder shows how adolescents often do not understand the consequences of their actions and therefore fail to show the regret that officials expect to see (“No Remorse,” January 2nd). By treating youths as adults in the criminal-justice system, we are contesting the construct of childhood itself.

Louisiana grapples with juvenile crime decision by Supreme Court

Intern — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:53:39 +0000

By Paul Purpura, New Orleans Times-Picayune

Giovanni Brown was 16 when he and another teen forced their way into a home in an upscale Harvey subdivision in 1999, armed with pistols and intent on mayhem. After holding four people against their will for hours, ransacking the home and trying in vain to force the homeowner to withdraw cash from an ATM, the teenagers stole two cars loaded with the family’s property.

Brown was prosecuted as an adult and convicted of aggravated kidnapping and four counts of armed robbery. He was sentenced in 2000 to life in prison with no chance of probation, parole or suspended sentence for the kidnapping, and another 40 years for robbery. Under Louisiana law, Brown would never leave prison, a reality his public defender Marquita Naquin argued during the trial.

“What can a 16-year-old do in the first 16 years of his life that demands that we throw him away?” Naquin asked the jury just before it unanimously rejected her plea.

Her argument proved prophetic.

Read the rest of the article here.

Juvenile offenders and lawmakers get another chance

Intern — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:51:44 +0000

By Robert Greene, Opinion LA Blog, Los Angeles Times

We’ve said it before — more than a dozen times. A child, even a bad one, should not be sent to prison for life without any chance at parole. It’s a mark of societal fear and a lust for revenge. Some younger criminals may indeed be so incorrigible that they should never go free, but after he or she has been behind bars for a quarter of a century, a judge, and a parole board, should be able to consider release.

On Tuesday, the state Assembly is reconsidering SB 9, a bill to put California among the ranks of civilized societies by ending juvenile life without parole sentences. Finally, Assembly, put this matter to rest, pass the bill and send it to the governor.

Or, as we have said previously…

Read the entire opinion piece here.

Change Juvenile No-Parole Law

Intern — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:06:38 +0000

By Gail Garinger, The Lowell Sun

Fair sentencing for juveniles requires holding youth accountable for their
actions and providing them with resources for rehabilitation, while recognizing
the paramount importance of ensuring public safety.

Our pledge to children in the commonwealth should be that we will start early
and never give up — particularly for children who have grown up in poverty and
with difficulties imposed on them by their parents and communities. Abuse and
neglect in the home and violence in the community create toxic stress in the
developing brains of children. We should not be surprised when these same
children find their way to trouble, and our response should include compassion
and rehabilitative services in addition to accountability.

Youths charged with murder are automatically tried as adults and, if
convicted of first-degree murder, receive a mandatory sentence of life without
parole. Life without the possibility of parole is the harshest punishment
available in Massachusetts, and imposing it on children ages 14, 15, and 16 is
an exceptionally severe sanction. A child’s age, past conduct, level of
participation in the crime, personal background and potential for rehabilitation
are irrelevant. These youths will grow up and grow old in prison, and they will
die while still incarcerated.

The law subjecting adolescents as young as 14 to life sentences without the
possibility of parole was enacted in reaction to a number of circumstances,
including insufficient punishment in the 1980s.
Read more here.

New Year’s Resolution on Punishing Kids

Intern — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:04:52 +0000

By James Alan Fox, The Boston Globe

The turn of the calendar always brings news about how crime levels have trended over the previous year. And like many cities around the country, Boston witnessed fewer crimes in 2011 than 2010, including a double-digit drop in homicide.

With crime rates at a 50-year low, this is a good time to re-examine our criminal justice policies, especially those measures implemented in a knee-jerk fashion when crime rates and higher levels of fear were peaking. We should begin in the areas that are a significant drain on the budget, such as our over-reliance on lengthy prison terms for juvenile murderers who, after decades of incarceration, no longer pose a danger to society. And this is hardly a left-wing, soft-on-crime idea, as even conservatives like Newt Gingrich have argued that we can’t afford to continue pouring vast sums of tax dollars into prison systems.

Many people are surprised to learn that Massachusetts is one of the toughest places in the world in punishing juvenile murderers. Defendants as young as 14, who are charged with murder are automatically tried as adults. If convicted, they are automatically sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. No other state has this harsh and rigid combination, and several states, including ultra-conservative Texas, have recently abolished life without parole sentences for juveniles.

Read the entire article here.

Bay State must relax youth punishments

Intern — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:02:59 +0000

By Jody Kent Lavy. Letter to the Editor, The Boston Globe

I WAS pleased to read the Globe’s story highlighting some of the injustices in the practice of sentencing children to life in prison without the possibility of release in Massachusetts (“For teens guilty of murder, penalties can vary widely; Review finds no pattern in young killers’ terms since Mass. law change,’’ Page A1, Dec. 27).

Massachusetts has one of the strictest sentencing schemes for juveniles in the country: children as young as 14 charged with murder must be transferred to adult court and receive a mandatory life without parole sentence, if convicted. There is no opportunity to consider the influence of older co-defendants, history of abuse or neglect, or any other mitigating factors.

Read the entire article here.

For my son, 18 years is too many

Intern — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:00:10 +0000

By Joseph Donovan, Sr. A Letter to the Editor, The Boston Globe

THE GLOBE’S Christmas Day editorial (“If sentences vary too widely, courts should make corrections’’) meant a great deal to my family. My son, Joseph Donovan Jr., is serving life without the possibility of parole for a crime that took place when he was a teen. Joey was convicted of murder, though he did not kill Yngve Raustein. By every account, he had no intention of participating in a murder. But he was convicted of armed robbery under the state’s felony murder law, which means he is ineligible for parole.

Joey’s actions were immature, stupid, and regrettable. But Shon McHugh’s desire to kill created a lifetime of sorrow for Yngve’s family as well as ours. Yngve was a brilliant, studious young man whose bright future was brutally taken from him. And my son, who had never been incarcerated before, became a lifer. What should have been his senior year of high school became his freshman year in the state’s most notorious prison, MCI Cedar Junction.
Read the entire article here.

Young have greater ability to reform

Intern — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:58:16 +0000

By David Fassler, Letter to the Editor, The Boston Globe

RE “FOR teens guilty of murder, penalties can vary widely; Review finds no pattern in young killers’ terms since Mass. law change’’ (Page A1, Dec. 27):

More states are re-examining their laws regarding life without parole for juvenile offenders. Such initiatives underscore the growing recognition that adolescents differ from adults in how they think, solve problems, and make decisions. Their brains are not yet fully developed, particularly in the areas that govern reasoning and complex behavior. As a result, they’re more likely to act on impulse, without fully considering the consequences of their actions. Fortunately, they’re also more likely to mature and change over time, enhancing the possibility of rehabilitation.

Read the entire article here.

Gift Giving Guide

Intern — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:56:17 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I saw this article about a perfect combination: being crafty and helping people. Right after that, I saw a friend’s plea for support for a Kickstarter project called Bloodsworth: An Innocent Man. This will be a movie about Kirk Bloodsworth, the first death row inmate exonerated by DNA evidence. If you are interested in the creation of Kickstarter and what it does, you can read about it here and here. (While the Bloodsworth support drive is over, I bet you could find other projects there relating to what I am about to say.)

Then it hit me: combine holiday gifts and criminal justice reform, with a little craftiness/creativity thrown in!

Disclaimer: Some of my suggestions involve a lighthearted approach to issues that truly keep me up at night. In other words, while I am being funny, I am also being serious. If that makes sense. I am not trying to offend people. It’s just like we say at work: sometimes you gotta laugh to keep from crying.

Read the entire article here.

Juvenile lifers should get a second chance

Intern — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:47:20 +0000

A Letter to the Editor

Re: “Supreme Court may review life sentences,” Page A1, Dec. 2.

After serving more than 20 years in the Department of Corrections, two years as a warden at the Avoyelles Simmesport Correctional Facility, I have seen the best and worst of people in prison. Because of this experience, I can tell you that sentencing juveniles to life without the possibility of parole benefits no one.

Many of the juvenile lifers I have worked with have been a huge help to staff in our prisons. Whether by keeping programs alive, training new inmates on how to become compliant to the rules or even in some cases training staff on how to handle inmates, juvenile lifers prove to be some of the most active, mature and often times rehabilitated inmates. These juveniles can live four times the amount of time they spent on the outside in prison, more time then an adult with the same charge even though they are not as mature or as culpable as adults.

Read the entire article here.