Since there are no publicly available data, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International engaged in a year of detailed research to determine the number of young offenders sentenced to life without possibility of parole in the United States. While there appear to be only about a dozen youth serving the sentence in the rest of the world, the data we gathered show that there are at least 2,225 youth offenders serving life without parole in the United States. These offenders are predominantly male (only 2.6 percent are female), and the majority are African-American (60 percent). Sixteen percent were fifteen or younger when they committed their crimes. There is great variation in the rate at which youth receive the sentence in each state, as shown in tables one and two below.

In eleven out of the seventeen years between 1985 and 2001, youth convicted of murder in the United States were more likely to enter prison with a life without parole sentence than adult murder offenders. Even when we consider murder offenders sentenced to either life without parole or death sentences, in one quarter of those seventeen years, youth were more likely than adults to receive one of those two most punitive sentences, as shown in table three below.

 


Executive Summary

State

Total youth offenders serving LWOP

Youth serving LWOP per 100,000 14-17 yr. olds

Rank from highest to lowest rate of sentencing youth to LWOP

Alabama

15

5.86

25

Arizona

30

10.33

20

Arkansas

46

29.21

7

California

180

9.18

22

Colorado

46

18.75

10

Connecticut

10

5.58

26

Delaware

7

16.31

14

Federal

1

n/a

n/a

Florida

273

33.32

6

Georgia

8

1.71

33

Hawaii

4

6.08

24

Idaho

data missing

data missing

n/a

Illinois

103

14.46

16

Indiana

2

0.57

36

Iowa

67

38.23

4

Louisiana

317

109.56

1

Maryland

13

4.41

28

Massachusetts

60

18.49

11

Michigan

306

52.87

2

Minnesota

2

0.66

35

Mississippi

17

9.48

21

Missouri

116

35.13

5

Montana

1

1.71

32

Nebraska

21

19.57

9

Nevada

16

15.35

15

New Hampshire

3

4.25

29

New Jersey

0

0

n/a

North Carolina

44

10.55

19

North Dakota

1

2.44

31

Ohio

1

0.15

37

Oklahoma

49

23.21

8

Pennsylvania

332

49.27

3

Rhode Island

2

3.69

30

South Carolina

26

11.5

18

South Dakota

9

17.99

12

Tennessee

4

1.29

34

Utah

0

0

n/a

Vermont

0

0

n/a

Virginia

48

12.54

17

Washington

23

6.65

23

Wisconsin

16

4.91

27

Wyoming

6

17.88

13

National

2225

17.35

n/a

Source: Data provided from thirty-eight state correctional departments and additional other sources for the states of Alabama and Virginia.

* Texas made life without parole sentencing for youth possible as of September 2005. Therefore, this table contains no data on youth offenders serving the sentence in that state. (back to top)

Source: Data provided by thirty-eight state correctional departments and additional other sources for the states of Alabama and Virginia. Population data were obtained from Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, "Table 2: Annual Estimates of the Population: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2003," released in September 2004, available online at www.census.gov, accessed on August 30, 2005. (back to top)



Source: The data are from the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP). The NCRP is sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), U.S. Depertment of Justice, and evolved from the need to consolidate data on corrections at the national level. Its objective is to provide a consistent and comprehensive description of prisoners entering and leaving the custody or supervision of state and federal authorities. NCRP data downloads are available online at www.ispsr.umich.edu, accessed on September 6, 2005. (back to top)
 
 
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