Sentencing Juveniles to Life Imprisonment - For or Against?

How do you feel about sentencing juveniles to life imprisonment? In the years 1985/1986 in Michigan they started a Mandatory Minimum Sentence programme for Drug Offences. This law was put into place in order to send out a clear message to those who dealt in drugs in the state. At the time, their hope was to capture major criminals in the drug-trafficking trade and keep them off their streets forever. Any person found with over 650 gramms of drugs on their person would receive a life sentence.

There was a case of a 17 year old male who was caught in possession of over 650 gramms of drugs and was tried under the Mandatory Mimimum Law. He attended school regularly, was a hard-working student and in general, a very quiet young man by all accounts. This kid was sitting in a house with a younger man who turned out to have a very lengthy record for drugs offences and who claimed that the goods were not his but were those of the kid in question. The 17 year old was charged, one week after graduation, with having over 650 gramms in his possession and was sentenced to life in prison with no parole. Was this a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time as afterwards it was discovered that the drugs in question beloned to an older man who was not luckily enough to not have been at the scene of the crime at the time.

Less than a year after this case a 15 year old female student was arrested and placed before the juvenile court. She was found in her apartment with over 650 gramms of heroin. This case was brought to light due to the court rule pending to try her as an adult. She constantly stated that she was employed to watch the drugs and that a telephone had just been installed in her apartment by others. It was her first call when the front door was broken down and the drugs were found in the middle of the kitchen table. This young girl was then sent to an adult court, tried and found guilty. Her sentence was also life imprisonment without parole. Many people have been given a lesser sentence for murder and in the case of this kid, who was not even old enough to vote, should we not see her as a stupid misdirected child who needs to be helped instead of locked away?

In the 1990's a young white male was arrested and given life imprisonment without parole for his first drug offence. His parents were financially capable of mounting a campaign against his sentence and they were successful in that he had his sencence reduced to 15 years. He is one of the luckier kids who had the finance behind him in order to bring this case back to the courts. What about the many hundreds of other kids?

I totally agree that drug-traffickers should face the full wrath of the law however, in the above mentioned cases, surely there is room for improvement. These kids are not old enough to vote, not old enough to join the military or even take a drink. The need to be educated, helped with their drug addictions and given support by their country. We need to find a new way to reach out to our children, the future of our country, and send them for treatment and to the correct form of council in order to rectify their young lives. Putting them in prison for life with no chance of parole, throwing away the key to their life, surely as a civilized society we can do better for our kids.