{"id":55165,"date":"2015-03-16T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=55165"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:58","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:58","slug":"un-expert-slams-us-as-only-nation-to-imprison-kids-for-life-without-parole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/un-expert-slams-us-as-only-nation-to-imprison-kids-for-life-without-parole\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Expert Slams US as Only Nation to Imprison Kids for Life without Parole"},"content":{"rendered":"

UN report on torture says life sentences for youths amount to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"headlineImage.adapt.1460.high.kids_prison_030915.1426001209869<\/a><\/p>\n

The United States was singled out Monday [9 Mar 2015] by a United Nations expert on torture for being the only country in the world that continues to sentence children to life in prison without parole.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of states have taken note of the international human rights requirements regarding life imprisonment of children without the possibility of release,\u201d Juan M\u00e9ndez, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, said in his report, before noting that the United States is the only country to continue the practice.<\/p>\n

A sentence of life without parole means life and death in prison \u2014 a practice considered cruel and inhumane punishment for juveniles under both international and U.S. law.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife sentences or sentences of an extreme length have a disproportionate impact on children and cause physical and psychological harm that amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n

Dr. Louis\u00a0Kraus, the chairman of the juvenile\u00a0justice\u00a0reform\u00a0committee at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, called the practice \u201ca devastating process to even conceptualize.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids have not developed. These are eighth-graders and, in some states, younger than that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Issuing life sentences for children is banned under numerous international laws, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child \u2014 which the U.S. and South Sudan are the only two states to have signed but not ratified. Also, a\u00a0U.N. oversight body<\/a> has found that the sentence violates the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, since youths of color are more likely to receive the sentence than white offenders.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Mission to the U.N. did not return a request for comment by time of publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe toughest part is that the crimes children might have committed, as devastating as they may have been, are really in unformed brains,\u201d said Kraus. \u201cThese teenagers are not the same as their adult counterparts will be. Many of them are not going to be that same person. They’re going to show greater insight, better empathy, less impulsivity, better reasoning ability in terms of understanding the short- and long-term ramifications of their behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Miller v. Alabama in 2012, outlawed mandatory sentencing of life without parole for children under 18, arguing that the sentence violated the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.<\/p>\n

Delivering the opinion<\/a> of the court, Justice Elena Kagan wrote, \u201cMandatory life without parole for a juvenile precludes consideration of his chronological age and its hallmark features \u2014 among them, immaturity, impetuosity and failure to appreciate risks and consequences. It prevents taking into account the family and home environment that surrounds him \u2014 and from which he cannot usually extricate himself \u2014 no matter how brutal or dysfunctional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, while the Supreme Court has ruled that sentences of mandatory life without parole are unconstitutional, judges at the state level can make sentencing decisions based on the circumstances in which the crime was committed. About\u00a02,500 people<\/a> in the United States are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of release for crimes they committed as children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big issue is whether that decision from the Supreme Court [on mandatory sentencing] has a retroactive effect so that persons who are serving life in prison without parole can benefit from that,\u201d said Steven Watts, the senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union human rights program.<\/p>\n

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have banned life sentences without parole for juveniles; Hawaii and West Virginia\u00a0joined<\/a> the roster in 2014. Earlier this month, the American Bar Association called for<\/a> a complete end to life without parole for children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 1990s, [courts] increased the numbers of offenses for which children could be sentenced as if they were adults. They were charged, prosecuted \u2014 as young as 14 \u2014 charged, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced as if they were adults,\u201d said Watts, \u201cThat comes from a debunked\u00a0theory\u00a0from back in the 1990s that there are these superpredators, incorrigible children, that it was built into their DNA that they would do the wrong things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still living with those laws, enacted at that time, and it happens to a degree in the U.S. that doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"(photo:<\/a>

(photo: truedemocracyparty.net)<\/p><\/div>\n

Amnesty International USA has for years championed the case of Jacqueline Montanez, jailed for life in 1992 at the age of 15, without the possibility of release.\u00a0She was convicted in adult criminal court for the death of two members of a rival gang and given a mandatory life sentence without parole. She pleaded not guilty<\/a> at the time but says she has since accepted full responsibility for her involvement in the murders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen children come into conflict with criminal law, our primary objective as a society should be maximizing their potential for successful reintegration into society,\u201d Steven Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a January 2015 letter<\/a> to then-Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois, asking for clemency for Montanez. \u201cTo deny the possibility of release is to deny the human capacity to change and is utterly incompatible with the basic principles of juvenile justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montanez, like many juveniles sentenced to life in prison, was exposed to violence and abuse at home. According to a 2012 report<\/a> by the Sentencing Project, many individuals incarcerated for life as children experienced high rates of violence, abuse and economic disadvantage growing up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that this practice is also unfairly imposed upon our most vulnerable citizens \u2014 those who have already been failed by many of the systems that are supposed to protect them,\u201d said Jody Kent Lavy, the director and national coordinator of the advocacy group the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. \u201cIn addition, there are significant racial disparities in the use of the sentence, with black youth sentenced to life without parole at a per capita rate 10 times that of white teens.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not only children in the criminal justice system that concern the U.N.\u2019s M\u00e9ndez; any form of detention is detrimental to the health and well-being of children, including immigration detention centers.<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a> released ahead of the report, he said, \u201cDetention of children based on migration status is never in the best interests of child, is grossly disproportionate and constitutes ill treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts say immigration detention can have profound negative effects on children\u2019s mental health and development. \u201cThat\u2019s partly because they are deprived of the kind of normal, everyday experiences and opportunities that they need developmentally,\u201d said Dr. Sarah Mares, a child and family psychiatrist and medical consultant to the Australian Human Rights Commission\u2019s recent inquiry into children in immigration detention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are exposed to very\u00a0high levels of adult distress, so\u00a0things\u00a0that can be protective for children and young people in everyday life when they\u2019re facing adversity are not available for kids that are detained,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticularly for children, there\u2019s a very significant link between deterioration in their mental health and functioning and the length of time in detention,\u201d said Mares. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s clear that detention for children needs to be for the minimum possible time.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Global Campaign to End Child Detention<\/a>, over 67,000 unaccompanied children and 2,000 families were detained in the U.S. in 2014.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 aljazeera.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sentence of life without parole means life and death in prison \u2014 a practice considered cruel and inhumane punishment for juveniles under both international and U.S. law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}