West LA Times

More than 2,900 minors have received juvenile life-without-parole sentences since the late 1940s. A new study published in the Journal of Criminal Justice now provides the most comprehensive picture to date of this unique subset of incarcerated individuals across the United States.

The open-access study originated from a grant awarded to Laura Abrams, a professor of social welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Abrams led an extensive national study focusing on young people who are ultimately given a chance at freedom after being sentenced to life in prison.

This study is the first to supply concrete numbers and a full demographic profile of the juvenile “lifer” population. It includes information on resentencing and release statuses, as well as other key outcomes such as mortality and exonerations.

In the United States, harsh sentences for individuals under 18 convicted of violent offenses increased dramatically with tough-on-crime policies in the 1980s and 1990s. More recently, two U.S. Supreme Court rulings, known as the Miller (2012) and Montgomery (2016) cases, found mandatory life sentences for minors unconstitutional. These rulings have led to the resentencing and subsequent release of many.

Since these rulings, more than 2,500 individuals have been resentenced and over 1,000 have been released, according to the research team.

“We are looking at this group as a case study to look at positive outcomes of resentencing that may eventually be applied to other lifers,” Abrams said. “We have a unique group based on their age of conviction, but our research is relevant to second chances and resentencing laws and policies writ large.”

Abrams noted that more than half of all current U.S. prisoners are serving sentences of 10 years or more. Consequently, this study has the potential to inform policies related to prisoners serving long sentences and the thousands — one in seven — currently serving life terms.

Read the full release on the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs website.