The United States has far more juveniles serving life prison terms than any other country – 2,387 at present – with Israel running a distant second with seven, according to a new study by the University of San Francisco’s Center for Law & Global Justice. Israel, the only other country that imprisons juveniles for life, according to the study, has not issued such a sentence since 2004.
In the U.S., life terms have fallen disproportionately on children of color, with black juveniles 10 times more likely than white children to be given life without parole, the report found.
The report asserts that “harsh sentences dispensed in adult courts do not take into account the lessened culpability of juvenile offenders, their ineptness at navigating the criminal justice system, or their potential for rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Psychologically and neurologically, children cannot be expected to have achieved the same level of mental development as an adult, even when they become teenagers.”
