Throw Away the Key: Thousands of U.S. Children Serving Life Without Parole

Haider Rizvi OneWorld US NEW YORK, Oct 12 (OneWorld) - While most nations have abolished laws on sentencing children to life without parole, the United States remains one of the few countries in the world where minors are still regularly condemned to spend their lives behind bars, a new report released by two leading rights advocacy groups points out. Currently, there are more than 2,000 child offenders in U.S. prisons serving life-without-parole sentences for crimes they committed before the age of 18, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, an independent group based in Britain. Entitled, "The Rest of Their Lives," the 157-page report is the first-ever national study on the practice of trying children as adults and sentencing them to life in adult prisons without the possibility of parole. While many children in prisons are now adults, about 16 percent were between age 13 and 15 at the time of committing crimes, say authors of the study, which also reveals that nearly 60 percent of children are serving life sentences for committing a crime for the first time. "Kids who commit serious crimes shouldn't go scot-free," says Alison Parker, senior researcher with HRW and author of the report. "But if they are too young to vote or buy cigarettes, they are too young to spend the rest of their lives behind bars." Parker notes that states are increasingly handing down life sentences to children at a time when fewer children are committing serious crimes such as murder. In 1990, for example, 2,234 children were convicted of murder, and nearly three percent sentenced to life without parole, she points out. By contrast, in 2000, only 1,000 children were convicted, but nearly nine percent of them were sent to jail for life. "Untie the hands of state and federal judges," says Dr. William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International-USA. "Give them options other than turning the courts into assembly lines that mass produce mandatory life without parole sentences for children." In 26 states, the sentence of life without parole is mandatory for anyone who commits first-degree murder, regardless of age. Currently, outside the U.S., there are only 12 children facing life imprisonment without parole, say researchers, noting that the International Convention on the Rights of the Child forbids life sentencing without parole. The treaty has been endorsed by every country except for the U.S. and Somalia. Over 90 percent of children serving life sentences are convicted of committing murder, according to official figures. But researchers say they found that at least 26 percent of those convicted did not personally or directly cause the death. Citing an example, they say 15-year-old Peter A. was sentenced to death without parole for "felony murder." Peter had joined two acquaintances of his older brother to commit a robbery. He was waiting outside in a van when one of the acquaintances botched the robbery and killed two people. "I never shot or killed anyone," Peter told researchers in an interview. The report says a vast majority of children currently serving life sentences belong to Black or Latino families, estimating that Black children, for example, are 10 times more likely than white children to receive a life-without-parole sentence. The study also points out that many children in prisons are sexually abused by criminal gangs run by adult inmates. Challenging the notion that life sentencing without parole could be helpful in reducing the juvenile crime rate, the authors say they see no evidence of such a correlation. "For example, Georgia rarely sentences children to life without parole, but it has youth crimes rates lower than Missouri, which imposes the sentence on child offenders far more frequently," says Parker who asserts that public safety can be protected without subjecting children to "the harshest prison sentence possible." David Berger, a lawyer with Amnesty International, agrees with Parker. "Children who commit serious crimes still have the ability to change their lives," he argues. "It's now time for state and federal officials to take positive steps by enacting policies that seek to redeem children, instead of throwing them in prisons for the rest of their lives." In addition to seeking an end to the practice of life sentencing without parole, the human rights organizations are calling on the U.S. government to grant child prisoners immediate access to parole procedures.