Criteria and Processes for Review of Release Eligibility of Children Sentenced to Life without Possibility of Parole

• In Event: Juvenile Lifers and the Possibility of Parole

Abstract

The U.S. Supreme Court has placed Eighth Amendment limits on the sentences that may be imposed on children convicted of serious offenses. The Court held that even children convicted of homicide must have a “meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation” except in the rarest of cases where the sentencer determines that the particular child “exhibits such irretrievable depravity that rehabilitation is impossible.” A critical question has emerged: how can inmates serving lengthy sentences for juvenile offenses demonstrate to parole boards or equivalent bodies that they are sufficiently mature and rehabilitated to be released? In recent years, this question has been the subject of legislation, litigation and academic commentary. Two issues that have not been adequately explored are the extent to which prison affords so-called juvenile “lifers” meaningful opportunities to amass records evidencing maturity and rehabilitation and what criteria and processes parole boards should use to determine that individuals should be released. Juvenile lifers are often denied access to rehabilitative programming, such as academic courses, job training, and psychological counseling, as a consequence of their sentence or because their facility has limited available slots. A variety of criteria and processes are available to address these deficits.

Authors

• Perry Moriearty, University of Minnesota Law School

• Michael Tonry, University of Minnesota Law School