News

By Jody Kent Lavy
July 8, 2014

Early one morning a few weeks ago, the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth team boarded a bus to New York for a re-sentencing hearing for a young man who was sentenced as a child to mandatory life without parole.

Angel was sentenced after he was charged and convicted in federal court for his role in a gang-related homicide after he, at age 15, rode his bike around the block as the lookout outside the home of a man who became the victim in an execution-style killing. Two years after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Miller v. Alabama, which found that it is unconstitutional to impose automatic life-without-parole sentences on children, I find myself reflecting on the hearing as a poignant illustration of where we are in this movement to establish fair sentencing for children.

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By Kim Odom
July 2, 2014

As pastors and parents of a child whose life was taken by gun violence, my husband and I have struggled with the pain of what that tragedy revealed. Our 13-year-old son, Steven, was shot and killed steps away from our home on October 4, 2007. We learned that two 17-year-olds (juveniles) and a 20 year-old (adult) were involved in the murder of our son.

It is unsurprising that after the Massachusetts SJC struck down the sentence of juvenile life without parole, there is a strong push from some legislators to pass a bill that creates a complicated “de facto” life in prison sentence, the result of which will mean that most youth convicted of murder will not have a reasonable opportunity for release for 40 years. The bill has passed the House and is under serious consideration in the Senate this week.

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By Xavier McElrath-Bey
June 25, 2014

I went to prison for gang-related murder when I was 13.

My public defender was able to convince the judge to sentence me to 25 years, which was less than prosecutors sought but still nearly twice as long as I had been alive. I served 13 years. While in prison, I grew up, earned a college degree, and committed to working for change on behalf of the victim in my case. In short, I transformed.

This week, we mark the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Miller v. Alabama. Thanks to that case, it is now unconstitutional to impose a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole on a child. The ruling guarantees that more children convicted of crimes will get a second chance in society, just as I did—but the potential for rehabilitation and change doesn’t end with release from prison. That’s why I am launching the Incarcerated Children’s Advocacy Network (ICAN), a network of formerly incarcerated youths that demonstrates the capacity for change that resides in every child.

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By Sarah Hinds, Catholic News Service
June 18, 2014

More than 2,000 people across the United States are currently serving life sentences without parole for crimes they committed as children.

“We are looked down on by society, an embarrassment to be swept under the rug and forgotten,” wrote one inmate.

Pope Francis recently sent a message of hope to a group of these prisoners.

In early May, the pope responded to hundreds of letters from inmates incarcerated for life as juveniles, assuring them of his prayers and that the Lord “knows and loves each one of them.”

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The New York Times Editorial Board
June 13, 2014

 

The “zero tolerance” disciplinary policies that swept through the country’s schools beginning in the 1990s have led to millions of children each year being suspended, expelled and even arrested, mainly for minor misbehavior that would once have been dealt with at the principal’s office. Federal civil rights officials warned this year that these tactics are often used in a discriminatory fashion against black and Latino children, who are at greater risk of being thrown out of school and denied an education.

 

The good news is that these policies are being rolled back. A new report by the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a nonprofit policy group, shows that states and school districts can cut down on suspensions and unwarranted arrests at school within relatively short periods without sacrificing safety or disrupting the school environment.

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