13- and 14-year olds sentenced to life without parole.

[tsukikage]

13- and 14-year olds sentenced to life without parole.
The only good thing I have to say about this is that they weren't sentenced to the death penalty.
There are also a few assumptions that are made that I think need closer inspection (they mention that nearly half of the 73 identified children are African-American, seeming to imply a bias (which I don't entirely doubt) by the sentences against people of color, but I think they also need to explicitly consider that there are more African-American families than Caucasians families that can't afford competent lawyers, and who are in situations that drive them to such crimes. But none of this changes that fact that these children are not receiving the help and care they need and deserve.
(Frankly, I'm not even sure what I think of life without possibility of parole for adults, either. I mean, the number one concern is certainly the safety of the populace, and one's behavior in prison isn't necessarily an indicator of whether they'll be a threat once they're released, but it could still be an indicator as to whether the person is fit for a parole investigation.)

Comments

[lugia222.livejournal.com]

But the point of prison is rehabilitation, and if people can rehabilitate and rejoin society, that's best for /all/ parties. Of course, there is a large number of people who get out and go right back in, but there are certain people who come out of prison with a new perspective and can be good members of society.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

*nods*
When I said I'm not sure what I think about it, I basically meant in 95% (or more) of cases I think it's wrong.

[carve037.livejournal.com]

But that raises the question, is the point of prison rehabilitation? I think some people would argue differently. Perhaps the point is containment. Or punishment. I think the big problem is it needs to be a different one of these things for different people, and it can't.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

I would say the primary purpose is containment, secondary is rehabilitation, and third is punishment, although my dad reminded me that for a lot of people rehabilitation really just isn't realistic.

[carve037.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think rehabilitation makes a lot of sense for, say, drug offences, or young gang members, or economically motivated crimes. The whole punishment/deterrence thing, well, it makes sense if you're China, where they kill a few people to make an example, but I don't think it's going to work as well in our situation. I think prison doesn't deter a lot of the hardened criminals of our society; it's the only place a lot of em have ever had 3 square meals a day, you know? And containment makes a lot of sense in the context of, say, sex offenders, but perhaps not as much sense in the case of felons without a history of violence or sex crimes (back to the addicts again).

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Well, in the drug situations you might want to contain drug dealers... At least in a country where the drugs they're dealing are illegal, anyway.

[carve037.livejournal.com]

I'd argue that that doesn't solve the problem; new drug dealers will move into the market. You lock up the Crips and all of a sudden Mara Salvatrucha appears. It's a problem of economics, essentially, and any real solution is going to have to fix the economic end of the drug trade, rather than just arresting people willy nilly.