Assessing California’s Response to the Supreme Court’s Rejection of Life in Prison without Parole for Juvenile Offenders

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the last decade and a half, the Supreme Court has decided a number of cases affecting juvenile sentencing and curtailing serious punishments for juveniles. These cases culminated in the Court declaring unconstitutional the sentencing of juvenile offenders to life without the possibility of parole. For those juveniles previously sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, these decisions mandated that states provide these offenders with meaningful opportunities for release. This paper assesses the implementation of the state of California’s legislative response to the Court’s rulings. Specifically, we examine the extent to which youthful offender parole boards in California consider the developmental factors noted by the Supreme Court in their decisions. Our results show that the aspects of the criminal offense and the “hallmark features of youth” were found not to influence parole decisions. In contrast, several aspects of the prisoner’s growth and maturation in prison were related to parole release. Thus, it appears that the parole boards are operating as instructed by the Supreme Court. Implications of these findings are discussed.