FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 6, 2023
Media Contact: Adam Kemerer | [email protected] | 412-728-2340

1,000 individuals who were sentenced to JLWOP are now free!

June 6, 2023 – Today, we mark the incredible milestone that 1,000 individuals who were once sentenced to juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) have now been released from prison! Since 2016, the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth (CFSY) has collected individual-level data for every person in the United States convicted of life without parole for a crime committed under the age of 18. All of us at the CFSY have been fighting alongside family members, formerly incarcerated individuals, survivors of violence, lawyers, legislators, and advocates to reach this landmark for over a decade. The milestone comes after a series of Supreme Court decisions on the importance of youth in sentencing and a legislative shift away from extreme sentences for youth. These reforms provided legal relief to the 1,000 individuals formerly serving juvenile life without parole as well as countless others serving extreme sentences since childhood.

People sentenced to JLWOP have been released from prison through a variety of pathways since Montgomery v. Louisiana. This information is collected and updated using information from state partner organizations, state departments of corrections, and outreach from those serving these sentences and their families.
Upon release, individuals have been invited by the CFSY to join a network of people who were sentenced to juvenile life without parole and other extreme sentences as children called the Incarcerated Children’s Advocacy Network (ICAN). The accomplishments of ICAN members across the nation demonstrate that our communities are safer and stronger with these incredible people home. We have celebrated alongside formerly incarcerated people who have become violence intervention and prevention workers, youth mentors, credible messengers, substance abuse counselors, restorative justice practitioners, published authors, renowned artists, college graduates, proud parents, and even Pulitzer Prize winners. Among people formerly serving JLWOP, the recidivism rate is extremely low – estimated at just 1.14% in Pennsylvania.

“When news broke that 1,000 people sentenced to life without parole as children are now free, my mind instantly flashed back to a time not long ago when I sat in a 6×8 concrete box peering out a mesh and bar-covered window searching in the darkness for even a distant sign of hope. But all I saw was a sea of hopelessness and misery. My vision was far from faulty. Throughout the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, no life-sentenced child had reason to believe we’d ever be free,” said CFSY Co-Deputy Director Abd’Allah Lateef. “Decades later, as one of these fortunate 1,000, I’m elated to witness this milestone. But for those who remain caged behind bars and barbed wire fences, the CFSY continues the fight for their freedom as we truly believe, ‘none of us are free until all of us are free.’”

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For more information, or if you would like to arrange an interview, please contact Adam Kemerer at [email protected] | 412-728-2340.

The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth is a nonprofit that leads efforts to ban life-without-parole and other extreme sentences for children, and supports those incarcerated as children who are released after serving long sentences.