It is well known that African-Americans are jailed at disproportionate rates. What may be surprising to some is what sentencing reform advocates are discovering about Black youth who are jailed.
“We looked at the rate of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences for homicides, and if you are Black and charged with homicide, you are twice as likely to get life without parole than your white counterparts,” said John Mills, principal attorney for The Phillips Black Project, a group of independent practitioners dedicated to providing legal representation to inmates sentenced to severe penalties.
Mills and other advocates believe these types of sentencing practices are due to the “super predator myth,” or the belief that youths are savages who lack impulse control or remorse.
Mills said Black youth are viewed as undomesticated, and aren’t viewed as kids. In order to receive a JLWOP sentence, a child needs to be charged and prosecuted in adult court, where they’re subjected to adult sentences. There is literature that suggests African-American youth are often assumed to not be youthful, which could increase the likelihood that their cases will be moved into adult court.
Furthermore, many correction systems house juveniles and adults separately, which Mills said should make clear the fact that kids and adults are different.
“The characteristics of youth are more readily ascribed to white youth than Black youth,” said Mills. “That may be one source of the implicit or explicit bias affecting the disparate sentencing outcomes.”
Statistics paint a gloomy picture, but Mills said there are glimpses of hope on the horizon.
“The choice and the assessment whether to charge someone a particular way is in the hands of the prosecutor. So the question is, who is the prosecutor choosing to charge as an adult, with first degree murder with life without parole sentences,” asked Mills.
Research shows certain states and certain counties within the U.S. abuse the practice of sentencing juveniles to life sentences without even the possibility of parole.
Five states house 80 percent of the juveniles serving life without parole: Florida, California, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Louisiana. California and Florida have made major reforms that have dramatically reduced kids in jail for life and Pennsylvania has abolished the practice for second-degree murder.
Five counties account for more than one-fifth of all JLWOP sentences: Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles County, California; Orleans Parish, Louisiana; Cook County, Illinois; and St. Louis City, Missouri. Philadelphia County accounts for almost 10 percent of all JLWOP sentences nationwide, and in St. Louis, there are people serving life without parole sentences for offenses committed as young as age 12.
“Indiana has discretionary juvenile life without parole, but according to the Indiana Department of Correction, no one in Indiana is serving (a life without parole) sentence,” said Mills. “There is at least one young man serving a sentence of over 80 years for homicide offenses, a de facto sentence for life in prison. Not too many prisoners live to be in their 90s.”
Christine Blessinger, chief operations director for the division of youth services with the Indiana Department of Correction, said there are Indiana youth who are sentenced as adults. They are all housed in the Youth Incarcerated as Adults Program at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility.
Also in the Hoosier state, there are four juvenile correction facilities independent from traditional penitentiaries that house youth who are overwhelmingly sentenced as youth.
Though they commit offenses similar to adults, such as murder and burglary, child inmates maintain some sense of normalcy.
“They go to school all day. We’ve had kids who get their GED or take the TASC (Test Assessing Secondary Completion) and graduate with a (high school) diploma,” said Blessinger. “If they’ve completed their TASC, they might have a job.”
She adds that youth committed to the juvenile division of the Indiana Department of Correction are all sentenced to indeterminate amounts of time. Though release dates are undefined, if youth are committed as a juvenile they remain in juvenile facilities until they are released.
“We have them in lots of programming. They have anger management groups, substance abuse groups. It depends on their needs. And there is a lot of family involvement,” said Blessinger. “We have growth plans for them. We work hard at re-entry. All of these kids are getting out, so from the day they arrive, we’re starting on a re-entry plan.”
Another step toward kids having the option to eventually be released from prison: in 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated mandatory life without parole for youths, with a ruling in Miller v. Alabama. This case argued that JLWOP cases violate the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments; and the 14th Amendment, which addresses equal protection of the law.
“Some state legislators have made statements that tend to reflect the common sense notion that the person we are when we are 14 is a different person when we’re 40 years old. It gives them a chance,” said Mills.
Although changes are being made in how youth are treated within the penal system, Mills encourages the public to continue to fight on the issue.
Mills suggests more checks and balances on individuals who have an extreme amount of power in deciding a youth’s fate. Also, since most prosecutors are elected, the public should ask the hard questions and look at the person’s record before casting their vote.
“Although Indiana doesn’t exercise this law, it’s still on the books. Other states with low use have abolished juvenile life without parole. Indiana could take it off the books too,” said Mills.
