NCJ Number
240751
Date Published
2005
Length
167 pages
Annotation
This joint report from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International examines the problem of child offenders in the United States sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Abstract
Data collected for this report indicate that in 2005, 2,225 people incarcerated in the United States were sentenced to life without parole for a crime they had committed when they were a child; 59 percent of the offenders received the sentence of life without parole for their first-ever criminal conviction; and 26 percent of the convictions were for the charge of felony murder in which the youth participated in a robbery or burglary during which a co-participant committed murder. The data collection also found that race was a significant factor in who received the sentence of life without parole, with Black youth receiving the sentence at a rate of 6.6 per 10,000, 10 times higher than the rate for White youth, 0.6 per 10,000. This joint report from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International examines the problem of child offenders in the United States sentenced to life without parole and presents research on why this sentence is never an appropriate outcome for youthful offenders. The report begins with a set of recommendations to Federal, State, and local government officials, prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys on stopping the use of life without parole sentences for young offenders. The report also examines juvenile justice trends in the United States, the demographics of youth sentenced to life without parole, the differences between youth and adult offenders, the conditions for young offenders sentenced to life without parole in adult prisons, and just sentences for youth under International Human Rights law. Case studies of young offenders are included in the report. Figures, tables, and appendixes