The United States is the only country in the world that permits kids under 18 to be sentenced to life without parole, a practice banned by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty to which every nation on Earth except the United States is party. The partial good news is that 28 of the 50 U.S. states have banned juvenile life without parole. But that's not good enough. Young people's brains are still developing until roughly age 25. They have diminished capacity to comprehend the risk and consequences of their actions. They are capable of turning their lives in a better direction. Even reducing public policy to heartless calculations, it is far more expensive to lock individuals up for life than to invest in our schools and our communities. There's more good news, however. In 2021, Washington, D.C., adopted a "second-look" reform that amounts to giving those convicted of crimes at ages under 25 a chance of parole under another name. In 2024, Massachusetts banned sentencing young people under 21 to life in prison with no possibility of parole. A number of other states have taken partial steps in the same direction, including banning mandatory sentencing of those under 21 to life in prison with no chance of parole. To bring 49 states up to the standard of Massachusetts will mean persuading them to ban life-without-parole sentencing of anyone under 21, whether that sentencing is mandatory or at the discretion of a judge. Some of the progress noted above is the work of legislatures, and some of courts. We're asking legislators, who are supposed to represent us, to do this. Our state should be the second state in the country to take this step. Click here to email your state legislators and governor to get this started.  | 
