Meaningful Opportunity for Release: Parole Board Standards for Juveniles Under the Graham, Miller, and the Eight Amendment

Abstract

After states were no longer able to issue mandatory life sentences to juveniles, many utilized parole as a way to provide a meaningful opportunity for release to juveniles as required by Supreme Court jurisprudence. However, this opportunity is often in name only because parole boards rarely grant parole and there is limited transparency and oversight to those decisions. Parole boards are in the best place to determine growth and rehabilitation, but constitutional standards need to be established for adult parole boards reviewing juvenile cases. Although this has been mentioned, there is little scholarship on what these particular standards should be. These standards will ensure that parole boards are complying with Supreme Court jurisprudence. First, juveniles need notice that they will be given a chance to demonstrate maturity and rehabilitation. Second, juvenile cases should have a parole hearing within thirty years so that juveniles have the chance to present evidence of rehabilitation. Third, at least every ten years after the first parole hearing, the juvenile should have an additional review before the parole board so that there is not an illusory opportunity for release. Fourth, parole boards need to consider growth in impulse control, maturity, and rehabilitation when evaluating juveniles. This includes receiving advice from experts in brain development. These standards will allow parole boards to provide review that is meaningful and consistent with the Supreme Court’s understanding of what makes children different from adults. Parole boards are in the best place to determine growth and rehabilitation, and the above constitutional standards will allow for actual meaningful opportunity for release.