Kids Shouldn't Die in Prison

Kids Shouldn’t Die in Prison

A look at the recent Miller v. Alabama Supreme Court decision—a victory for juvenile justice advocates—and the long hard road ahead by Kimberlee Johnson

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n June 25, 2012, the United States Supreme Court struck down mandatory life-without-parole sentences for homicide offenders who are under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes.

This narrow 5-to-4 decision is a victory for both juvenile lifers and the advocates who have worked tirelessly for many years on their behalf. In the Miller v. Alabama ruling, the majority opinion as stated

by Justice Elena Kagan was that juvenile life-without-parole (JLWOP) convictions violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Approximately 2,600 citizens are currently serving JLWOP sentences. More than 2,000 of these were sentenced through the mandatory sentencing practice that the new ruling has barred; it is these prisoners who now have hope of eventual release. 1 Civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson represented the defendants in the case. The executive director of the nonprofit law firm Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson called it “an important win for children...

The Court has recognized that children need additional attention and protection in the criminal justice system…[This] decision requires the lower courts to conduct new sentencing hearings where judges will have to consider children’s individual character and life circumstances, including age, as well as the circumstances of the crime.”

But the fight for juvenile justice is far from over. Because resentencing must be initiated by the prisoners themselves, the majority of whom lack the funds to hire an attorney, Stevenson worries that many will remain in prison. The Supreme Court has stated that prisoners seeking new hearings have no constitutional right to counsel. And youths will continue to be tried as—and incarcerated with—adults, as this ruling touches exclusively on mandatory life-without-parole sentences.

How did this happen?

Many Americans are surprised to learn that the US not only incarcerates a greater percentage of its citizens than any other country in the world but also has the dubious distinction of being the only nation

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that sentences children to life in prison without parole. What is this harsh sentencing based upon?

Two key factors have contributed to the large numbers of juvenile lifers. The first is mandatory transfer laws. Transfer laws, which vary by state, determine whether a juvenile will be heard in a juvenile court or prosecuted in an adult criminal court. These transfers can occur through judicial waiver (a juvenile court judge decides), prosecutorial discretion (the prosecutor decides to directly file in an adult criminal court), or legislative statute/statutory exclusion (state law mandates that it is automatically filed in an adult criminal court). Currently 29 states have automatic statutory transfer laws so that all juveniles charged with felony murder are tried in adult court at the very start, and murder charges apply to both the principal actor in the murder and any accomplices who are a part of the original felony regardless of their role in the crime.

The second factor is mandatory sentencing laws. When statutes automatically dictate the sentence for a particular crime, the hands of judges are tied in terms of determining what may be a more just sentence given particular circumstances. Anita Colon, Pennsylvania coordinator for the National Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, illustrates this in the tragic story of her brother, Robert “Saleem” Holbrook. At the age of 16 Holbrook was given $500 by a drug dealer to serve as the lookout during a drug transaction. The transaction turned out to be a robbery/murder, and Hobrook was eventually charged and convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Despite the judge’s expressed acknowledgement that Holbrook was the youngest and least culpable in the crime, Pennsylvania law mandated that he sentence the boy to life without parole.

According to Human Rights Watch, 59 percent of juvenile lifers are first-time offenders, like Holbrook, with no juvenile or adult record. 2 Like the rest of the US criminal justice system, JLWOP reflects extensive racial and economic disparities. Youth of color are more likely than white youth to be transferred into adult courts for every type of offense.3 In Pennsylvania, 65 percent of prisoners serving

15-year-old in confinement in San Jose, Calif.

(Photo by Richard Rodriguez)

JLWOP sentences are African American. White youth in adult court are twice as likely as African American youth to have a private lawyer, and youth represented by private attorneys are less likely to be convicted, regardless of race or ethnicity. 4 Many politicians have garnered popularity by taking tough-oncrime stances and using phrases like “adult crime, adult time.” Children, however, are unlike adults in one very significant way. According to Dr. Ruben Gur, director of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, “The evidence now is strong that the brain does not cease to mature until the early 20s in those relevant parts that govern impulsivity, judgment, planning for the future, foresight of consequences, and other characteristics that make people morally culpable…” 5 While our laws determine that young people are not mature enough to drive before the age of 16, vote before 18, or use alcohol before 21, trying and sentencing children as adults implies that they are capable of exercising appropriate judgment in the midst of peer pressure, tempting life circumstances, and often difficult home situations. Sadly, the recent ruling against mandatory LWOP sentences for juveniles will do nothing to change the broader situation for youths charged with violent crime. All states have laws permitting the trying of children as adults (under various circumstances), and at least 22 states and the District of Columbia have no minimum age restriction.

Trying youth in adult court could also subject them to adult sentences and placement in adult prisons. 6

While natural consequences and appropriate punitive judgments are needed for children as well as adults, “the juvenile justice system was founded because youth have unique characteristics—requiring special protections and services—that reflect a greater capacity to change than adults.”7 If this is true, rehabilitation/restoration as a productive member of society is not only a worthy but also a realistic goal for them.

Consider Philadelphia native Edwin Desamour. At the age of 16, Desamour was tried and convicted of murder as an adult. Spared a life sentence, he was given seven to 20 years, going on to serve eight years in an adult prison and over 11 years on parole. Despite his misery while incarcerated, Desamour was motivated by the possibility of parole and determined to change his life around and never return.

Upon his release, and with the help of community support, Desamour eventually founded the nonprofit MIMIC—Men in Motion in the Community. MIMIC is a group of men, most of whom are ex-offenders, who offer mentoring and crisis intervention to at-risk youth in order to keep them from entering the juvenile justice system in the first place.

Like Desamour himself, MIMIC volunteers model what it takes to be a productive citizen and are living proof that redemption is possible.

Impact and implications of new ruling Opponents of the abolition of mandatory JLWOP argue that given the heinous and sometimes premeditated murders that are committed,

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Dig Deeper: Organizations The Campaign for Youth Justice (Campaignfor YouthJustice.org) is dedicated to ending the practice of trying, sentencing, and incarcerating youth in the adult criminal justice system.

The Coalition for Juvenile Justice (JuvJustice.org) is a nationwide coalition of State Advisory Groups and allies dedicated to preventing children and youth from becoming involved in the courts and upholding the highest standards of care when youth are charged with wrongdoing and enter the justice system.

The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI.org) is a nonprofit that provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system, including juvenile offenders. Check out their excellent resources on children in adult prison.

Men in Motion in the Community (MIMICPhilly. org) seeks to build bridges of community support and social bonds for Philadelphia’s high-risk youth, young adults, and previously incarcerated men through mentoring, community engagement, and educational enrichment.

The National Organization of Victims of Juvenile Lifers (NOVJL.org) tells the stories of those victimized by juvenile offenders.

Take some time to visit their site in order to better understand their side of the issue and to grieve their losses as well.

The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth (EndJLWOP.org) is a national campaign that has been working to end the practice of sentencing youth to die in prison.

ders of our innocent loved ones and the devastation left behind…

The deluge of litigation, legislation, and resentencing that has been opened … by the Court will rip up the legal finality that family members have relied on. We will have to go back to court and re-engage with the offenders who ruined our lives.” 8 As a result of Miller v. Alabama three things will happen. First, states must respond with changes in legislation. Second, courts must provide new sentencing hearings to all of the affected petitioners.

Third, the public consciousness and dialogue must grow as it relates to issues of mandatory minimum sentencing, transfers of youth to adult criminal courts, and the appropriateness of adult sanctions for juveniles convicted as In 2008 a group of five young men were arrested in Miami for armed car-jacking, buradults. glary, sexual battery, and assault. Among them was then-13-year-old Ronald Franklin.

States must enThe older members of the group pointed a finger at Ronald as the ringleader, although act laws consistent he was the youngest. Ronald is still being held awaiting trial in an 8×10 cell at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. (Photo by Richard Ross; juvenile-in-justice.com) with the Miller v. Alabama ruling. All states with mandatory sentencing schemes are affected by the Court’s decision—and the responses have been varied. In the state of Pennsylvania, which has the highest number of juvenile lifers at 480, the chair of the Senate judiciary committee, Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R-12), held a public hearing on July 12, 2012, to receive testimony regarding how to implement the Supreme

JLWOP should continue in the United States. It is important to remember that to the same extent that juvenile lifers, family members of these lifers, and fair sentencing advocates feel excited, victorious, and relieved, victims’ families, prosecutors, and victim-advocacy groups feel angry, defeated, and grieved.

These voices must also be heard. Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, president of the National Organization of Victims of Juvenile Lifers, said, “This ruling invalidating the life sentences of many of our family members’ murder cases comes against the backdrop of tragedy. While we understand the tragic consequences to the killers, the entire context of this decision is first and foremost the appalling and senseless mur-

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Dig Deeper: Books

Court’s decision. This is perceived as an immediate act to achieve compliance with the higher court’s EDITOR’S PICK: TRUE NOTEBOOKS—A WRITER’S YEAR AT JUVENILE HALL is Mark Salzman’s mandate. Sentencing laws related to account of his reluctant first visit to a writing class at L.A.’s Central Juvenile Hall, a lockup first- and second-degree homicide for violent teenage offenders, many of them charged with murder. What he found so moved convictions are the primary issue. and astonished him that he began to teach there regularly. An eye-opening, heart-softening According to Lourdes M. Rosado, asread. sociate director of the Juvenile Law Center, Sen. Greenleaf is trying to get the relevant legislation passed by the Boys among Men: Trying and Sentencing Juveniles as Adults by David L. Myers end of 2012, but this process may (Praeger, 2005) explores the evolution of transfer laws, increasingly prevalent in the US, take longer depending on the state. that send youth to adult prisons rather than juvenile detention facilities.

Lower courts must offer the opportunity for new sentencing hearings to those currently serving manLast Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth by John Hubner (Random datory juvenile life-without-parole House, 2008) looks at a facility in Texas that runs the most aggressive–and one of the most sentences. At these hearings, mitisuccessful–treatment programs for violent young offenders in America. gating circumstances and arguments (related to age, family and home environment, relevant circumstances, and the possibility for rehabilitation) can be presented, and judicial discretion may be used in sentencing.

According to Rosado, a letter containing the Motion of Post Convic) Educate yourself about these issues. (See “Dig Deeper: Books” tion Relief form has been sent to all juvenile lifers in Pennsylvania, above.) Become part of or support the efforts of an existing orgaencouraging them to file a petition within 60 days of the Supreme nization or movement that is making progress with regard to these Court ruling, challenging their life-without-parole sentence. In Philaissues. (See “Dig Deeper: Organizations” on page 36.) delphia alone approximately 250 cases are already before the Court ) Support the families of victims who died at the hands of juveof Common Pleas in order to have sentences revisited. As Anita Colon niles. Support the families of incarcerated youths. indicated in her July 12, 2012, testimony before the Senate Judiciary ) Host forums at your organization or job to educate others about Committee in PA, “The crucial mitigating factors that my brother’s trial juvenile justice issues. judge was prohibited from considering all those years ago must now ) Churches and other community organizations, donate the use be taken into consideration.”9 of your space for community meetings. Allow flyers to be posted.

Disseminate information.

Lest anyone think this process will be easy, consider the extreme ) Admit your involvement or place in this issue (e.g., victim of dissent and disagreement with regard to interpretations of the retroviolent crime, family member of an incarcerated person, advocate, activity of the Court’s ruling. Chief Justice John Roberts, in his disopponent) and voice your beliefs. senting statement, said that it “is a great tragedy when a juvenile ) Write a letter (or start a letter-writing campaign) to your discommits murder—most of all for the innocent victims. But also for trict attorney, state representatives, and local newspaper editor the mur­derer, whose life has gone so wrong so early. Perhaps sciexpressing your opinion about the issue. ence and policy suggest society should show greater mercy to young kill­ers, giving them a greater chance to reform themselves at the risk (Editor’s note: Due to space limitations, the endnotes for this article that they will kill again… Neither the text of the Constitution nor our have been posted at PRISMmagazine.org/endnotes.) precedent prohibits legislatures from requiring that juvenile murderers be sentenced to life without parole.” 10 This statement has formed a basis upon which many district attorneys’ offices are fighting to mainKimberlee Johnson is chair of the Urban Studies Department and directain (discretionary) life-without-parole sentences for those previously tor of the Center for Urban Youth Development at Eastern University’s convicted under mandatory sentencing laws (despite the fact that any Philadelphia campus. She is a member-at-large of the Coalition for juvenile sentences lacking the possibility of parole were discouraged Juvenile Justice. The author would like to express particular thanks to by the Court).

Anita Colon (Pennsylvania coordinator for the National Campaign for The public consciousness has been raised as a result of the the Fair Sentencing of Youth); Edwin Desamour (founder of MIMIC); Lourdes Rosado, Esq. (associate director of the Juvenile Law Center); Miller v. Alabama Supreme Court ruling. Opportunities for discourse and Jeffrey Shook, Esq. (associate professor of law and social work at must continue as issues of human rights and juvenile justice come to the University of Pittsburgh) for their time and contributions to this arthe fore in our society. We must contend with the issues of mandaticle. (The editor would like to thank Roger Zeperneck, board member tory minimum sentencing, transfers of youth to adult criminal courts, of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, for his guidance.) and the appropriateness of adult sanctions for juveniles convicted as adults. People of conscience must take action. How?

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