U.S. states are considering whether there are better ways to treat the worst juvenile offenders, rather than locking them up in adult prisons for life.
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Stewart J. Greenleaf held a hearing Monday to find out why Pennsylvania, the nation's sixth-most populous state, leads the nation in the number of juveniles sent to prison for life.
The inquiry could help determine whether changes in state law are necessary, said Greenleaf, a Republican.
Supporters of juveniles sentenced to life in prison for murder, as well as the families of victims murdered by juveniles, packed the committee room Monday. Testimony included two grown men who have lived in prison since their teens, both appealing through video hookup for a second chance to prove themselves in society.
"We're not asking that killers be set free," Robert G. Schwartz, the executive director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, said in an interview after he testified. "We're asking that every juvenile lifer be given a second chance."
Pennsylvania does not allow parole for juveniles convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to the adult prison system, nor does it set a minimum age for juveniles to be tried for murder.
In addition, juveniles convicted of second-degree murder - a killing committed during the commission of certain other crimes - or of being an accessory to a murder they had no intention of committing can be convicted as adults and sentenced to life without parole.
The reconsideration comes a decade or two after a wave of get-tough-on-crime laws swept through state legislatures and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that it is unconstitutionally cruel to execute juveniles.
Sarah Hammond of the National Conference of State Legislatures said Colorado has led the way, creating a clemency board to hear cases of juveniles convicted as adults, among other changes to laws that guaranteed life in prison for juveniles.
Other states have considered raising the age teenagers are prosecuted as adults in light of research that indicates teens can't control their impulses. Connecticut plans to raise its age from 16 to 18 in 2010.
Lawmakers in Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York and North Carolina debated legislation to raise their ages in the past two years, but the measures all failed, according a study released in February by a Wisconsin legislative research bureau.
Pennsylvania has 350 inmates who entered prison when they were under the age of 17, according to the state Corrections Department.
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