I think it would be fair to say that most people won’t remember, but in back in December, 2007, the United Nations took up a resolution calling for the abolition of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for children and young teenagers.
With the United States being the only country that voted against the resolution, the vote turned out to be 185 to 1.
An article featured in The New York Times caught my eye, and I am of the opinion that everyone should go read it, come back here and share your thoughts on the matter.
This author personally feels that imprisoning a 30-year-old for something that he did when he was 15 could possibly be a huge injustice.
The issue is a matter of degree, however.
Is it wrong to imprison an 18-year-old for something horrible that he did when he was 14? How about a 20-year-old? How long should we lock these kids up? Does it depend on what they did? Does it depend on how and if they change? If it depends on if they change, why are we letting anyone out of prison if they haven’t made a serious attempt to change their attitude towards conforming to social norms?
Hard questions.
Let us know what you think.
Update!
We’ve had many great responses to this post, but one in particular stands out. Here it is, in its entirety:
A tough question but one easily answered if we choose to live in an environment devoid of sociopathic killers. If we are sick and tired of losing loved ones close to us.
Sadly enough there are people born with a head of bad wiring. As children they can be cute, endearing, witty and lethal. NOTHING will change their desire to kill. They kill. That is what they do and some of them are pretty darn good at it. They kill your mother, your father, your daughter, or in my case, my twin brother. For what? Two thousand dollars. In their sick, twisted minds a human being has the value of two thousand dollars.
This isn’t about my brother. This is about a society that is so obsessed with being touchy feelie that they allow killers to re-enter our society and kill again and then, again. The answer, prison? No. Lethal injection within 48 hours of being sentenced to death. The lengthy appeal process must be eliminated completely. There are NO exceptions. I know.
People will read this and think I’m outrageous. Am I? Or is this the solution to end the ever rising murder rate in this country? This isn’t rocket science. Eliminate the problem without prejudice and the problem disappears. Until we put the lives of our loved ones in a higher regard of those who kill our loved ones then we must accept and not be surprised at the ever increasing murder rate.
- DGC
Seattle, Washington
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I have a 14 teen year old son, and while he is prone to being an airhead about some things, he has never been as violent as the girl in the story. I worry that someone as young as she was could perpertrate such a violent act. Stealing, drinking, and other minor offenses are one thing, but wiping out an entire family takes a kind of rage and lack of conscience seen in sociopaths. Even at fourteen, children know the difference between right and wrong. If anything, young offenders who commit acts this heinous should spend time in a psychiatric facility before any talk of release.
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a really tough question indeed, though i found a good quote in the article from the new york times.
“We’re not demanding that all these kids be released tomorrow,†Mr. Stevenson said. “I’m not even prepared to say that all of them will get to the point where they should be released. We’re asking for some review.â€
i feel for the statement that every child deserves a second chance, though in the case of Ms Jones i’d say a life sentence without parole isn’t overdoing it at all, 2 premeditated murders and two attempts is enough for me. that brings about another point for me though, where do you draw the line? if three people had survived this attack, it would’ve been just one murder, would that constitute a life sentence as well? not something i can answer easilly.
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God, I’m 14 myself, and if I killed anybody, I’d ASK for the death penalty. Unless they have a mental defect, kids my age do know the difference between right and wrong, and anyone who doesn’t think we do is doing us teenagers a real disservice. I believe that if you take someone else’s life, you deserve to have yours taken away. If you look at most cases, murderers and rapists who get let out just repeat their crimes. These people don’t deserve a second chance at life; they’ve forfeited that chance when they took someone else’s.
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Liz Sanchez reply on August 27, 2008:
Okay ummm, you sound mature and all and I like that you have those feelings about this subject but ummmm, seriously, why is there a 14 year old on here reading any of this…..my personaly opinionis, that is not okay. I never thought about it until just now but anyone at any age can hop on here and read some pretty sick and twisted stuff……I almost feel a little guilty because I feel like the reason things are soooo screwed up in society is partly because our children are exposed to so much violence, nudity and hatefulness at such an early age that they become desensitized and find it nothing to then go and blow someone’s head off for $50.00 or a jacket or a pair of shoes or whatever…or have sex with 30 different people before they graduate….it’s not right. I feel like it is just fine for adults to be on here cussing and chatting and judging but 14??? REALLY??? Am I the only one that thinks this way??? I have a 12 year old and I’ll be damned if I ever catch him reading any of these stories or posts even in a couple of years from now.
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Liz Sanchez reply on August 27, 2008:
personal opinion is, I know, I know bad bad bad
Don’t call me out on it either….I’m tired, it’s been a long day and my fingers work faster than my brain…..lol
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What strikes me is that most of the kids who commit these crimes have a hisory of bad behaviour. There are warning signs along the way. If more parents, teachers, child welfare workers, paid attention to the signs, we would have more kids in therapy and less in jail.
That said, once they have committed such a crime, they should be punished as severly as is possible.
This whole three strikes thing is ok for kids who shop lift or steal cars, but when the crime is as serious as this, how can you say its ok to give them a second or third chance? To do so is risking the life of another human .
The people they kill, their life is gone and the lives of their families are forever changed. The victims will not get a second chance at life. So why should the criminals get another chance?
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