Stats by State

Does my state sentence youth to JLWOP?

Commendably, twelve states either forbid JLWOP or presently have no such juvenile offenders that we know of serving that sentence. The states that currently prohibit JLWOP are: Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, New Mexico, and Oregon. The states where there are no people known to be serving JLWOP are: Maine, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and West Virginia. There is also no one known to be serving a JLWOP sentence in the District of Columbia. The federal government does sentence youth to LWOP—there are currently at least 36 people serving JLWOP in federal prison.

State Distribution of 2,570 Juvenile Offenders Serving JLWOP

Sources: Unless otherwise indicated, these figures are based on data provided directly to Human Rights Watch as of mid-2004 (except that we used the National Corrections Reporting Program to obtain data for Virginia, and for Alabama, we used its inmate locator system). Unless otherwise indicated, and where possible, we updated data between mid-2004 and 2009 using the following methods: post-2004 press reports were checked against inmate records with state departments of corrections; and correspondence received by Human Rights Watch from youth offenders sentenced to life without parole was checked against press reports and state inmate records.

States listed as “mandatory” have at least one scenario where people charged with crimes when they were under 18 must be sentenced to LWOP for their conviction.  “Discretionary” means that the state has no mandatory JLWOP sentences.  This data was collected and published by Human Rights Watch.

CA, IA, MA, MI, OH, TX, WA, Federal: In 2009, state departments of corrections or federal bureau of prisons sent updated data directly to Human Rights Watch or to partner organizations.

AL, CT, FL, IL, LA, NE, PA: In 2008, state department of corrections sent updated data directly to Human Rights Watch or to partner organizations.

To get involved in your state, contact James Puzo (info@fairsentencingofyouth.org).