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This report focuses on the sentencing of child offenders—those convicted of crimes committed when younger than 18 years of age—to a term of life imprisonment without the possibility of release or parole (“LWOP”). The sentence condemns a child to die in prison. It is the harshest sentence an individual can receive short of death and violates Imposing LWOP on a child contradicts our modern understanding that children have enormous potential for growth and maturity as they move from youth to adulthood, and undergo dramatic personality changes as they mature from adolescence to middle-age. Experts have documented that psychologically and neurologically children cannot be expected to have achieved the same level of mental development as an adult, even when they become teenagers. They lack the same capacity as an adult to use reasoned judgment, to prevent inappropriate or harmful action generated as a result of high emotion and fear, or to understand the long-term consequences of rash actions. For many children, LWOP is an effective death sentence, carried out by the state slowly over a long period of time. The young age of those serving time in the United States, for example, makes them more susceptible to severe physical abuse by older inmates, including sexual assault. This can produce additional trauma for children who are likely to have suffered physical abuse before entering prison. Children also endure emotional hardship, hopelessness and neglect while serving time. In the U.S., some child offenders believe execution to be more humane than living with the knowledge that their death will come only after many decades of confinement to a small, concrete and steel cell. With no hope of release, they feel no motivation to improve their development toward maturity. This is reinforced by prison officials who tend to give up on the juveniles sentenced to die in prison, providing them with no real education or life skills (resources better spent on those who have a chance of release). In this context, the sentence is indeed cruel and unusual. On a global level, the consensus not to impose LWOP sentences on children is virtually universal. Based on the authors’research, there are only two countries in the world today that continue to sentence child offenders to LWOP terms: the United States and Israel. The U.S. has at least 2,381 children serving life without parole or possibility of release sentences while Israel is known to have 7. The last documented case in Israel occurred in 2004 but there is concern that Israel may apply the sentence again to child offenders convicted of political or security crimes. Yet, from 2005-2007 alone, U.S. courts sentenced an additional 149 children to LWOP terms. Australia is also a country of concern because a law passed in New South Wales may have the effect of applying life without parole sentences to at least two juveniles whose cases are pending before the country’s highest court. This year, Tanzania and South Africa, countries reported to have had child offenders serving LWOP sentences, have now officially stated that they will allow parole for juveniles in all cases. This is a laudable departure from earlier positions and one that the authors and other human rights groups look forward to monitoring. More than ever before, the community of nations today resolutely condemns the practice as against modern society’s shared responsibility toward child protection and, more concretely, as a human rights violation prohibited by treaties and customary international law. The U.S. and Israel have ratified a number of international treaties which they are violating by allowing LWOP sentences for juvenile offenders. The authors have prepared this report in part to expose this human rights abuse to the global public, other governments and the United Nations and, in part, to share this information more clearly with the American public and officials. This is of particular concern today for Americans because, as was the case with the juvenile death penalty, there is no evidence that the severity of this sentence provides any deterrent effect on youth and the sentence rules out the possibility of rehabilitation and redemption for our children. Given the extraordinary number of child offenders serving this sentence in the U.S. as compared to the rest of the world, Americans may well ask why so many U.S. states continue to violate international human rights law, as practiced by virtually every other country in the world where children also sometimes commit terrible crimes. Why does the U.S. continue to impose a sentence that is not humane, appropriate or a deterrent to crime and which fails America’s children and adults? Surveys demonstrate that Americans believe in the redemption and rehabilitation of children and do not believe that incarcerating youth in adult facilities teaches them a lesson or deters crime. The country’s juvenile justice laws and policies should better reflect this understanding. In fact, the U.S. as a nation could follow the lead of Germany, New Zealand or the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida and Louisiana, where alternative sentencing structures are succeeding in rehabilitation and reduction of recidivism. These would more soundly address the public’s concerns over punishment and safety, while enhancing the opportunity for juveniles to become mature and productive contributors to society. The Report commends the efforts of governments, international organizations and NGOs for their efforts in the past few years to more urgently bring non-complying governments into compliance with international law and juvenile justice standards. The authors conclude by recommending that:
international human rights standards of juvenile justice.
Owner: Michelle Leighton and Professor Connie de la Vegapdf: http://www.crin.org/docs/Law_and_Practice_Report_Sentencing.pdf
and to call upon those where the law may be ambiguous to institute legal reforms confirming the prohibition of such sentencing; and further to remove barriers to the enforcement of international standards and expand their juvenile justice models to focus more extensively on rehabilitation programs, including education, counseling, employment and job training and social or community service programs and to evaluate these models to ensure
protection of the rights of juveniles.
rehabilitation models as described in this Report; and monitor and publish data on child offenders serving LWOP sentences in each state. The United States should also ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international laws related to juvenile justice.