The following article was published in the Sacramento Bee on August 25, 2011.
Young lifers deserve chance for redemption
When it comes to cruel and expensive punishment for juveniles, California stands out. Currently our prisons hold 296 inmates who committed their crimes when they were 16 or 17 years old and are serving life sentences with no possibility of parole.
Even the notoriously tough-on-crime Texas has eliminated life without possibility of parole for juveniles, as have many other states.
In California, these types of life sentences to juveniles are handed out disproportionately. Young offenders who are black are sentenced to life without parole at over 18 times the rate of their white counterparts, according to an analysis of state data conducted by Human Rights Watch. Latino youths are five times more likely than white youths to receive life sentences.
Senate Bill 9, authored by Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco, wouldn't eliminate life-without-parole sentences for teenagers. But it would give young lifers, all of whom are in prison because they committed murder or participated in a felony in which someone was killed, a chance to demonstrate that their sentences should be reduced.
Under the proposal, an inmate sentenced to life without parole for crimes committed as a juvenile could petition a court for a rehearing and resentencing, but only after he or she had served 15 years. If a petitioning offender met certain criteria – such as not being the actual killer or having no prior violent juvenile offenses before committing the crime for which he or she was sentenced – the judge would have to consider those factors. Even offenders who did not meet those criteria but who demonstrated remorse and showed solid evidence of rehabilitation behind bars could petition for a rehearing.
Merely the granting of a hearing does not mean lifers would be released or even resentenced. If a judge agreed to reduce a sentence, an inmate would still need to serve a minimum of 25 years before being eligible for parole. By that time, the inmate would have spent more than half of his life behind bars and would be 41 years old at minimum, but more likely closer to 50 or older and still not guaranteed release.
Such inmates would have to go through the regular parole process, just like adults sentenced to life with the possibility of parole must now. If the parole board granted parole, the governor would have the power to reverse the board and keep the inmate in prison.
Juveniles can and do commit heinous crimes, offenses that horrify us. But unlike many hardened adult criminals, they are capable of turning their lives around. At 16 and 17, a young man or woman's brain is not fully developed. Character is not fully formed. Change is possible.
Even if young lifers never leave prison, the Yee bill gives them an incentive to behave behind bars and to work toward bettering themselves in prison. It gives them the opportunity to participate in educational, counseling and other self-improvement programs not open to inmates serving life without the possibility of parole.
While some crime victims oppose the bill and say it would reopen old wounds, others support the idea of redemption and the principle that justice without mercy is hollow.
Yee's SB 9 is pending on the Assembly floor. Legislators should send it to the governor's desk
Source: Sacrament Bee
|
|
|
|
