Imprisonment Unto Death for Children: Should Teens Be Sentenced to Die in Prison?

Close the judgments of your brain for a moment. Think of something pleasant. Look around your home, your job, your life. If you have children who are minors, think about them. If your children are grown, think back to when they were teens. Now ask yourself, "When should we sentence children to die in adult prisons?" Why do I care? I am the family member of a child sent to prison for life.

Unable to marry, buy cigarettes, drive a car, vote or enter a binding contract, children can still be sentenced to die in prison. There is little doubt that the crimes committed by children, or their co-defendants, are very serious or even heinous. What is in doubt is whether a child can comprehend the serious nature of the offense. Still more uncertain is whether a child can grasp the legal aspects of the criminal justice system, whether sentencing children to prison to die is cruel and unusual punishment, or whether children should be held to the same standard as adults.

Alison Parker, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch said, "Kids who commit serious crimes should not go scot-free, but if they are too young to vote or buy cigarettes, they are too young to spend the rest of their lives behind bars." I agree with Alison. Children who commit crimes should be punished, however, no child should ever be sentenced to life without parole (LWOP). If we can send children to adult prison, then we should give them the other rights of adults as well.

The United States is one of two countries in the world who sentence children to adult prison. The other country is Somalia. The US has ruled that it is unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile to death by execution, but they are willing to sentence children to die in prison. I cannot wrap my mind around the laws that allow this practice. Sentencing children to life without parole should be considered cruel and unusual punishment. LWOP is the same thing as a death sentence. The death is just slower and crueler, filled with abuses by older, more hardened convicts, like forced survival under the most horrendous of situations, such as rape and physical violence. We do not want sexual predators to get to our children, so why do we put them in prison with them?

There are 19 states in the United States that have sentenced children as young as 13 and 14 to life without parole. Those states are Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Michigan, Illinois, Nebraska, Washington, Tennessee, South Dakota, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Brain research shows that teenagers are not capable of controlling their impulses in the same way that adults are, and that they do not understand their own vulnerability to danger or life long consequences. The brain, though developed enough for intelligent school work, is still growing and changing in young people. The frontal lobe which is charged with cognitive process like judgment, reason or planning is simply not completely mature until around age 25. Children at ages 13 and 14 simply cannot be as responsible as an adult when it comes to the ability to reason and understand long term consequences or even to comprehend the many outcomes of particular choices. Mentally, emotionally and physically, teenagers are not yet mature. The growth cycle of the mind and body has not been completed. It should also be considered that children or teens are accustomed to being dependent upon adults, obeying authority, and are vulnerable to intimidation. Youth have limited language skills and may not be able to articulate how or why they ended up in the situation they are in.

Further, children on trial within the adult criminal justice system are incapable of understanding their rights. This particular fact was demonstrated to me repeatedly during the trial of my family member. Having an attorney who handled the case was a blessing, but the ability for any of us to understand the proceedings, what they meant, why they were necessary or what would happen next was close to impossible. In addition to that, the emotional state of my child family member was such that trying to reason or accomplish a particular goal was unfeasible. Even with an attorney as a mediator, the task of defense was unbearable and truthfully, unrealistic. Adulthood had not occurred in her and the ability to rationalize was like dealing with someone who was mentally handicapped. In some ways, it was mentally handicapping to the child as well as every family member.

To explain just a little of this nightmarish journey is enough to make me cry. She was a female, barely 15, and she had no comprehension that her mother couldn't just rescue her and take her home and make it all go away. During visiting, all she could do was cry. Talking and reasoning was non-existent. She understood nothing about the criminal proceedings and she had no understanding that half of society just wanted to help her, but had to help her within the confines of the law and that the other half of society just wanted to lock her up and throw away the key. She felt like she could just explain and people would understand and reach out to help her. Her capacity to understand anything past her own version of the crime and her own pain were reduced to a great degree. She could understand that what happened was wrong, but she could not understand the 360 degree long term effects of the crime for many years. She had to grow into an adult (and that process did not occur until years later) before a complete comprehension and awareness occurred. At that point, she had to face herself and others with a new frame of mind and it was for her like reliving it from a whole different point of view. She comprehended, but she still didn't understand the life sentence. As a teenager, she was certainly incapable of making decisions within the court system. Without attorneys, she would have said anything any official wanted to hear if she thought saying it meant she could go home. Incredible is too faint a word for what happens when a child ends up in the adult judicial system.

She also could not understand the affect her decisions had on others. She could not understand the financial strain placed on family members. She could not understand anyone's emotions if they were not her own. Isolating her away into an adult situation did not help this fact either.

Children who enter into the adult prison system grow up in a subculture where everyone has committed a crime, many of them being serious and repeat offenses. They will reach their maturity levels raised (or accosted) by criminals rather than their parents. This is a time in their young lives when they are most susceptible to influence and psychological damage only this time it is not in middle or high school; it is in the adult prison system with hardened, experienced criminals. It is not like a school yard fight. In such a case, the principal and the parents become involved. There is no parental involvement at all anymore. The child is a child in an adult world and forced to survive. Some do not survive.

It is up to us as a society to do the right thing and influence them in the juvenile justice system rather than the adult criminal courts. With children, there is still time for rehabilitation. Children can be moved to the adult system when they are adults if such an action is deemed necessary and just.

Adult criminals are given many rights. Among them is the right to an attorney, the right to adequate representation, the right to defend themselves in a proper way. With those rights come the automatic adult intelligence to understand what is happening. This just isn't possible when the person on trial is a child. The way the system is set up right now, adults in prison have more rights to proper counsel and defense than do juveniles in the adult court system. They have the same rights that adults do, but they are not adults. They are children.

According to John Hubner in his article "Discarded Lives" in Amnesty International Magazine, there were 2225 children sentenced to adult prison in 2006. That number has increased.

In 2007, according to Ed Pilkington in his story in The Guardian "Life Without Hope", there were 2270 children sentenced to adult prison. Some were as young as 11 and 12.

To view a slideshow of children who have been sentenced to adult prison, click here. Not a single one of these children are monsters. Their crimes are wrong and fair, just sentencing should be applied. These particular children are all sentenced to die in prison. Or click here to read some letters written by children currently in prison sentenced to LWOP. To take this even a step further, here is a list of just 10 children who were sentenced to LWOP. Take your time and google any one of them. Every single one was 13 or 14 when the crime occurred. Three of them are sentenced to LWOP even though they did not commit homicide and no homicide occurred during the course of the crime. One is a female (unrelated).

Dominic Culpepper, age 14, sentenced in Florida
Joseph Jones, age 13, sentenced in North Carolina
Quantel Lotts, age 14, sentenced in Missouri
TJ Tremble, age 14, sentenced in Michigan
Joe Sullivan, age 13, sentenced in Florida, non-homicide
Ian Manuel, age 13, sentenced in Florida, non-homicide
Ashley Jones, age 14, sentenced in Alabama
Omer Ninham, age 14, sentenced in Wisconsin
Ken-Tay Lee, age 14, sentenced in North Carolina
Antonio Nunez, age 14, sentenced in North Carolina, non-homicide

The list goes on, but I am not finished. You've seen a slideshow and read some letters. I have pictures and videos. The pictures are on a PDF file with the Equal Justice Initiative. National Geographic has two released videos about Kids Behind Bars and Quiet Kid Learns to Cope in Prison and PBS Frontline has another. YouTube is full of videos of and about children in adult prison.

The Second Chance Act for Children in Prison 2009 was defeated. It will return to the floor in March 2010 (Bill # HB23 in Florida). To learn more about this denial in an article, click here, or to simply view what it is about click here to view a video.

I have intentionally not mentioned the name of my family member. I am qualified to write this article because of the relationship and the involvement, but this article is about all children in adult prisons sentenced to life without parole. It is a bigger problem than just in my family. It is my prayer that not another child is ever sentenced to adult prison.

Now just take a moment and imagine that you are the parent of a child sentenced to adult prison.

Sources:
The Guardian
AmnestyUSA
Human Rights Watch
HRW
Equal Justic Initiative
EJI Slideshow
Harvard Magazine Teen Brain Research
NY Times
Law FSU.edu
Iowa Juvenile Justice Org
ia4juvenilejustice.org Letters