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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina s congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Myorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: Emphasis on Age Needed in Youth Parole Decisions

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Monday, December 5, 2016   

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – U.S. Supreme Court rulings have made people who were sentenced to life without parole as juveniles eligible for release from prison, but a new report says very few are being granted parole.

The report, “False Hope: How Parole Systems Fail Youth Serving Extreme Sentences,” by the American Civil Liberties found that across the country, parole boards rarely consider a person's age at the time of the offense in evaluating applications for parole.

According to Sarah Mehta, the report’s author, with thousands of cases to decide, often the parole board's only consideration is the original crime.

"That's often the only thing they have a chance to see, and not all the extensive rehabilitation, letters of support, low-risk analysis and the other factors that are really important," she explains.

The report says even in states that have full parole hearings, parole is granted to fewer than 20 percent of prisoners serving life sentences.

Studies have shown that people "age out" of criminal activity, no matter how serious the offense.

Mehta adds that for people sentenced as teenagers that can mean decades behind bars, even for those considered model prisoners.

"For parole boards, there hasn't been the political support to release people who are doing well now, if they committed a serious offense 30, 40, 50 years ago, despite what the Supreme Court has said," she states.

The failure to grant parole becomes a racial justice issue as well. Nationally, Mehta says, people of color are far more likely to be given long sentences.





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