Opinion: I was a Washtenaw County sheriff. Michigan must ban life sentences for kids.
Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is a steep price to pay for adults in the criminal justice system, but it is a nearly unfathomable sentence for a child.
Juvenile life without parole is a sentencing practice that is slowly but surely being replaced by fairer, more proportionate sentencing. To date, 31 states have banned life sentences without the possibility of parole for children, but there is still work to be done. Here in Michigan, life sentences are still a legal possibility for some kids and already a reality for others. Fortunately, that may soon change; newly proposed legislation will correct the course of our juvenile justice system by barring life without parole sentences and providing clear and fair alternatives that will make all of us safer.
Juvenile justice should be focused on reintegrating young people by helping them move on from their mistakes, and working to reduce recidivism. Prioritizing better outcomes for those children facing life without parole doesn’t just help them, it means better outcomes for their families and communities, too. Senate Bills 119-123 are Michigan’s chance to catch up to the rest of the nation on juvenile justice.
I have worked with kids in the criminal justice system in Washtenaw County for my entire career, and I know the difficulties they and their families face. Continuing to sentence children like adults is hardly just. Michigan can and must create better policies for juvenile justice. This proposed legislation is the key to ensuring better outcomes for youth in the justice system.
This package of companion bills does four important things. First, it would establish a sentencing guideline of 10 to 60 years as an alternative to life without parole sentences for people younger than 19. The laws would require parole eligibility after 10 years for minors, and require that the parole board consider the mitigating circumstances of youth when making decisions. A ban on juvenile life sentences without parole would be enacted, while still guaranteeing that adult sentences can still be imposed on child offenders, with the exception of life without parole.
These bills are a long overdue response to a series of five U.S. Supreme Court decisions about youth sentencing and life without parole. The most critical among those established that juveniles are "constitutionally different" from adults when it comes to sentencing, that a judge must consider the developmental differences between children and adults before sentencing a child to life without parole, and that a juvenile life without parole sentence is unconstitutional for non-homicide offenses. Most importantly, one of those cases decided that the consideration of youth can also be made retroactively — which means that juveniles sentenced to life without parole before the Supreme Court decisions can, and should, have their sentences reviewed.
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Since then, many states have moved to adopt sentencing guidelines that are in line with those decisions, but Michigan has been slow on the uptake. In 2012, when the court ruled in Miller v. Alabama requiring judges to consider youth when sentencing, Michigan had 356 youth sentenced to life without parole. In the years since, 273 juveniles have been resentenced and 154 have been released. But 97 remain sentenced to life without parole.
That is progress, but it is not enough. This bill package is the answer to ending the practice of sentencing children to die in prison, and starting to treat them like what they are: children that are developmentally different from adults.
Juvenile brains work differently from adult brains. Children take less time to think before they act; they have less impulse control and lower social intelligence, which makes them more susceptible to peer pressure; and children have a lower ability to contemplate the risks and consequences of their actions. Adult brains, on the other hand, have greater impulse control and emotional regulation, as well as a better ability to plan and anticipate outcomes.
Sentencing youth as if they are adults is unfair and unjust. Requiring courts and judges to consider these differences when sentencing would create much better outcomes for youth. Data from a study of Philadelphia youth shows that just 1% of kids who had been sentenced to life in prison, resentenced and released reoffended. Those individuals are not a threat to public safety, and this study shows that aging out of criminal activity is possible when the juvenile brain is given time to develop.
The Supreme Court recognizes these differences, so should the state of Michigan.
We need to reframe how we think about juvenile justice in Michigan. The system should be helping children prepare for a life after incarceration, not preparing them to spend the rest of their lives locked up for a mistake they made while growing up. By understanding the differences between children and adults and giving kids time to age out of criminal activity and focus on reentry to society, we will build a better juvenile justice system that works for all of us.
Alyshia Dyer serves as deputy sheriff for Washtenaw County.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Opinion: Michigan, end practice of sentencing kids to life in prison
