Second Chances Resource Library

This white paper focuses on parole review for people serving long sentences for crimes committed under age 18. It discusses the constitutional dimensions of parole review for that cohort and describes relevant legislative reforms and litigation challenging parole processes and procedures. Finally, the white paper proposes model policies to support a realistic and meaningful opportunity for release on parole that is grounded in assessment of youth and post-crime maturity and rehabilitation. The policies address substantive bases for the release decision as well as procedures to support comprehensive and accurate parole review.

Part I describes the changes in law in the late 1980s and early 1990s that resulted in a marked increase in young people sentenced to life or life-like sentences, as well as the evolving understanding of psychosocial and neurological development that followed. Part II summarizes the U.S. Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence on this topic. Part III discusses the subsequent changes that states across the country have made to the ways that they sentence people for crimes committed under age 18, the ensuing rise in parole-eligible life and life-like sentences for that cohort, and the ways in which existing parole systems fell (and continue to fall) short. Part IV explores the constitutional dimensions of parole review in this context and the judicial decisions that have begun to fill in the contours of the relevant requirements. Finally, Part V offers model policies, with commentary, addressing the substantive and procedural components of parole review for people sentenced for crimes committed under age 18. The model policies aim to ensure a realistic and meaningful opportunity for release that is based on assessment of youth and post-crime maturity and rehabilitation, with procedures to support decision-makers in comprehensive and accurate parole review.