In America they have laws that allow juveniles to be tried and sentenced as adults. This means that some very young offenders face life in prison. In general, the law applies to people over 16 and under 18, but with some charges of murder juveniles as young as 14 can be considered fit (or unfit) for trial as adults.
According to a report published in 2005 by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the United States is the only country to punish juveniles so severely on a routine basis. They counted 2,225 child offenders locked up for life across 42 American states. In the rest of the world, they found only a dozen other cases, restricted to three countries - Israel, South Africa and Tanzania.
Almost half the children in prison have been convicted of non-violent offences. More children are in prison for robbery than any other offence.
Sentencing for children is becoming harsher - in 1992 only 100 children under 15 were sentenced to custody, all had committed what were defined as 'grave crimes'. In 2003, 4.794 under 15 were imprisoned, yet only 45 of these had committed the same definition of 'grave crimes'.
Now, I want to read up a letter written by a 15 year old boy. He’s awaiting his punishment.
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