Portion below; whole thing here:
http://www.counterpunch.org/martin08022008.html
According to a study by the Pew Center on the States, one out of every 100 adults in the U.S. is in prison or jail. And because of the racism of the American "justice" system, the numbers are much higher for people of color--if you are an African American man between the ages of 20 and 34, your likelihood of being behind bars today is one in nine.
But the U.S. stands even further apart from the rest of the world in one nightmarish aspect of its prison system--the men and women sentenced to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
There are over 132,000 people serving life sentences in the U.S. One in 10 are forbidden from ever receiving parolee, but overall, only one in four of the larger group will ever come before a parole board. Despite FBI crime statistics showing a drop in violent crime over the past decade, the number of people sentenced to life in prison has nearly doubled.
Paul Wright, the editor of Prison Legal News and author of two books on the prison system--who himself served 17 years of a life sentence--said life without parole sentences are "a death sentence by incarceration. You're trading a slow form of death for a faster one."
This kind of sentencing is virtually unheard of elsewhere in the world. "Western Europeans regard 10 to 12 years as extremely long term, even for offenders sentenced to life," says James Whitman, author of the book Harsh Justice.
And among the prisoners with life sentences in the U.S. are 2,380 people who were sentenced to life without parole as "juvenile offenders"--in other words, they were under the age of 18 when the crimes they were accused of were committed--according to Human Rights Watch.
Of these juvenile offenders, 73 were sentenced to life in prison without parole at the age of 13 or 14 years old, according to research done by the Equal Justice Initiative.
To put this in perspective, no other country in the world sentences 13 year olds to life without parole. In fact, outside of the U.S., only 12 juvenile offenders anywhere in the world are serving this sentence, according to Human Rights Watch. Seven are in Israel, four are in South Africa, and one is in Tanzania.
There are over 2,000 in the United States.
* * *
"I'm the first to say that I made my share of mistakes in life--I'm not perfect. But life without the possibility of parole is a life-draining sentence. No matter how hard I try to better myself, I'm treated as if I am the worst of the worst. I can't sleep nights. I can't rest in my body because this one bad choice to hang with friends could cost me my freedom forever."
-- Daniel Henney, serving a juvenile life without parole sentence in Illinois
ONE THING that stands out about prisoners sentenced to life without the possibility of parole is that they don't stand out as the inhuman monsters they are often depicted to be.
Among all prisoners with life sentences, from 1988 to 2001, 40 percent were convicted of a crime other than murder. Of juvenile offenders given life without parole sentences, 59 percent--well over half--had never been convicted of a previous crime, according to Human Rights Watch.
Antonio Nunez was raised in Los Angles, his life shaped by gang violence. As the Equal Justice Initiative described in its report "Cruel and Unusual," at the age of 14, he got into a car with two older men, one of whom had been kidnapped. A police chase ensued, and gunfire was exchanged. No one was killed; no one was even hurt. But Antonio was sentenced to life in California's San Quentin prison, where he remains today.
"He has lost all hope," his sister Cindy Nunez told Reuters. "We try to keep his spirits up by saying something will change in the law."
Rather than their alleged crimes, other factors stand out about those serving life without parole sentences. Invariably, they are poor. Many came from violent homes or suffered abuse. And an overwhelming proportion are minorities. According to Human Rights Watch, among juvenile offenders serving life without parole for crimes other than murder, every single one is a person of color.
No comments:
Post a Comment