Life imprisonment for children & teens
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Life imprisonment for children & teens
| Wed, 10-17-2007 - 4:00pm |
The U.S. is the only country in the world that convicts young adolescents as adults and sentences them to life in prison. According to a new report, there are 73 Americans serving such sentences for crimes they committed at 13 or 14. Do you think the government should abolish life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for children and young teenagers?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/us/17teenage.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
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Edited 10/17/2007 4:43 pm ET by cmgina



No.
Sallie
I think anyone who commits murder should be put in prison. It's not like they just put anyone in prison for life without parole. It has to be for something pretty bad. And if someone commits a murder that is that awful, I don't care if it is a teen or an adult, they need to be in prison. They make a choice and they serve the sentance.
As far as dealing with the parents etc. Yes, something needs to be done about that, and that is where our laws really need some reform. Abuse, especially sexual abuse doesn't carry a heavy enough sentance in my opinion. OTOH, I don't believe someone should get off because they were abused as a child, there are plenty of us living normal lives and not committing crimes that were abused, molested or raped as children. Our society needs to prosecute the offenders and the victims need to see that they need to get help and not go down the wrong path and then blame it on their past.
A huge percentage of those kids got life for crimes where no one was killed! One of those kids hitched a ride in a car where an adult was being kidnapped by another adult with no bodily damage to anyone. The problem with this system is that the decision as to where the kid is to be tried rests with the prosecutor and not the judge and with mandatory sentencing laws the judges then have no discretion to tailor the sentence to the circumstances of the case.
My website: http://TheParentsCoach.com
My parents blog: http://blog.TheParentsCoach.com &nbs
In contrast with the US, "life" imprisonment in Canada is a maximum of 25 years.