Justice System Grinding Slowly on Juvenile Lifers
January 22, 2019
Even though the US Supreme Court has ruled that juvenile offenders should not be sentenced to life in prison without parole, except in the most extreme cases, some states are still keeping many young lifers locked up. The high court acted in part on research showing that the brains of young people are not fully developed, making them likelier to act recklessly but capable of rehabilitation—a case argued in Issues by a neuroscientist who helped chart the timeline of adolescent brain development.