Everyone,
As The Pendulum Foundation welcomes 2009, we are very hopeful about the plight of the 2500 or so juveniles in the United States who are serving life without parole.
The Obama administration has embraced passage of The Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), which the rest of the world long ago enacted. (In fact, advocates are working on an even more progressive version and consider the United States a “third-world nation” as it pertains to our treatment of children). Part of the convention addresses prison sentences for children. Should CRC pass, that would give us increased moral authority when speaking out against juvenile life imprisonment.
A new national director, whose mission is to end juvenile LWOP, will begin her duties on February 4. We are looking forward to working closely with Jody Kent, and hope that HR4300 will be first on her agenda. We believe in the 21st century that life sentences for children are out-dated and uncivilized. If the rest of the world can get by with far shorter prison sentences, and yet have a less brutal society, then something is very wrong with America’s model. We long lost our moral authority with the rest of the world by the way we treat the incarcerated, particularly our incarcerated children. Time to do something new!
The Pendulum Foundation will soon have a new logo and a web site with a little different look. We will also be working in conjunction with another related organization to provide more resources for abused kids who killed their abusers or who are facing trial for killing an abuser.
We will also be presenting ideas for programs to the juvenile clemency board and hopefully working more closely with them to create a comprehensive package that will actually allow some candidates to earn their freedom We believe that all current Colorado juvenile LWOPS should start with having their sentences align with Colorado’s current law, which mandates 40 years before the opportunity for parole. A 40 year sentence is hardly being soft on crime since most of our young prisoners will be pushing 60 before they’re even eligible. From that anemic beginning, programs, behavior, a comprehensive re-entry plan and the support of victims should all be considered. Implementation of these criteria would allow a candidate a guided and strict path to freedom before they are old men and women. So far, approximately 12 candidates have been denied a commutation or clemency. The process has been secret so we have no insight as to why these young men have been rejected. We will ask for more transparency.
Finally, we will be putting together a speaker’s bureau that will include victims, experts on child abuse and parricide, family members of prisoners, former prisoners and members of The Pendulum Foundation to keep this important issue in the public eye.
Until next time,
Mary Ellen Johnson, Executive Director
