The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth

Bar to legislature: End JLWOP

ieppler — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:17:03 +0000

By Bill DiMascio

The Pennsylvania Bar Association has issued a call for lawmakers to end the practice of mandating life without possibility of parole sentences for offenses committed by juveniles. If enacted by the legislature, Pennsylvania would join just about all other political jurisdictions of the world in banning the practice.

What’s the Matter with Kids Today

ieppler — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:49:50 +0000

by Mark Hansen

A group of test subjects ages 10 to 30 is asked to solve a puzzle. It involves re arranging a stack of colored balls on placeholders using as few moves as possible. Each wrong move requires extra moves to undo it.

The test is designed to measure impulse control. Adolescents tend to start moving balls almost immediately, which usually necessitates rearranging later. Adults, however, tend to take more time to consider their first move, which generally allows them to solve the puzzle on their first try.

The slow march to justice for children

ieppler — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:50:28 +0000

By Barry Krisberg

America’s foremost legal philosopher, Roscoe Pound (1870-1964), once observed that the American juvenile court was the greatest step forward in Anglo-American law since the Magna Carta. He was referring to an ideal of justice that was individualized, compassionate and infused with the value of human redemption. This was the vision of Jane Addams, Judge Ben Lindsey and the youth advocates who lobbied to create the juvenile court in Illinois and Colorado in 1899.

Sadly, this ennobling model of justice has been honored more in the breach than in reality.

End of ‘life without parole’ for teens welcomed by advocates

ieppler — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:51:42 +0000

by Doris Benavides

“Finally God, some people are listening to our prayers. Please help us to get a second chance.”

That was the prayer of a 15-year-old serving a sentence on life without parole at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar when he was notified about the recent Supreme Court decision to end the lifelong sentence for juveniles.

SCOTUS Says … I Was Right

ieppler — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 23:03:23 +0000

By Dwayne Betts

Almost a year to the date I wrote about this JLWOP (juvenile life without parole) here, while guest posting for TNC. This was around the time when the Supreme Court was deciding to take a look at Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida. On May 17, 2010 the SCOTUS decided that it is unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile who has committed a non-homicide offense to life without the possibility of parole. You can read the 80 page decision here. As far as decisions go it’s pretty interesting.

Forgiving My Daughter’s Killer

ieppler — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:40:09 +0000

By Linda L. White

One of the two 15-year-old boys who killed my 26-year-old daughter Cathy was released from prison last month after serving 23 years of a 54-year sentence. Gary Brown was released from prison one week before the Supreme Court decided in Graham v. Florida to end the practice of sentencing juveniles to life without parole for crimes other than murder.

Until November of 1986, I was not very knowledgeable about or interested in criminal or juvenile justice matters. I spent most of 1987 in limbo awaiting the trials of Gary Brown and his co-defendant. All I knew about them was that they were certified to stand trial as adults and had long criminal records as juveniles. At the time they seemed to be non-persons. It would take years for me to get over my indifference toward them, to eventually discover their humanity.

Life Without Parole

ieppler — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:53:44 +0000

PBS Need to Know

The Supreme Court ruled last month that juveniles can no longer be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for non-homicide crimes. Need to Know looks at the case of Joe Sullivan, who was convicted to life in jail at the age of 13.

View the video at PBS…

Kids are not adults! And trying them as adults is both inhumane and ineffective

ieppler — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:25:21 +0000

By Liz Ryan

Children. They’re not like us.

Once again the Supreme Court has ruled that the age of 18 is a defining line between childhood and adulthood, and that children should not receive the same punishment as adults. The decision laid the foundation for states to reexamine their laws on prosecuting kids as adults.

Jordan Brown, 11 years old at the time, was certainly not an adult last year when he is alleged to have fatally shot Kenzie Houk, 26, with a 20-gauge shotgun as she slept in the New Beaver farmhouse they shared. Now 12, he can’t vote, drink alcohol, get married, enlist in the armed services or make medical decisions for himself. He’s not an adult, but he is being treated as one by the Pennsylvania criminal justice system.

Youthful offenders deserve a second chance

ieppler — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:59:47 +0000

By Miriam Aroni Krinsky, Ernie Pierce and Jeanne Woodford

One of us is a retired police officer who daily put his life on the line to catch criminals. Another is a former Department of Justice attorney who spent years prosecuting violent drug dealers and organized crime organizations. The third, a former warden of San Quentin State Prison and director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, spent her career ensuring that those convicted served out their sentences as required by law.

Collectively, we have put or kept a lot of people in prison. Prison is where some people justly belong, many for long periods of time. But it is exactly our experience in law enforcement that causes us to agree with the Supreme Court’s recent decision to abolish the sentence of life without parole for teens in nonhomicide cases.

Young criminals, appropriate punishment

ieppler — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:26:50 +0000

Editorial

THE U.S. SUPREME COURT last month ruled 5 to 4 that juveniles convicted of non-homicide crimes may not be sentenced to life without parole.

In the case, Graham v. Florida, the court followed essentially the same reasoning it used when it declared in 2005 that juveniles may not be executed: Scientific evidence is conclusive that young people have “limited moral capability” for their crimes – and their punishment should reflect that fact.