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Although the United States is the only country in the world that currently incarcerates juvenile offenders for life without the possibility of parole, this country appears to be moving towards practices more consistent with the rest of the world. This article discusses these trends and focuses on California's groundbreaking legislative reforms, which have created a schema that provides most juvenile offenders with the opportunity to earn their release from prison after serving between fifteen and twenty-five years in prison. Though the punitive American approach to juvenile justice is out of step with the rest of the world, the national trends are moving this country's treatment of juveniles who break the law closer to the aspirations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The widespread adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has made a tremendous impact on global responses to juveniles- young people under the age of eighteen-who break the law. Although the United States has not ratified this nearly universally accepted Convention, its principles are nonetheless influencing the evolution of American juvenile justice. The U.S. Supreme Court has been influenced by global practices shaped by the CRC in a string of recent Eighth Amendment cases that prohibit the juvenile death penalty and limit juvenile LWOP sentences.
Although the United States is the only country in the world that currently incarcerates juvenile offenders for life without the possibility of parole, we appear to moving towards practices more consistent with the rest of the world. The recent trend to limit and, in many states, eliminate life sentences for juvenile offenders is notable in this regard. Legislation that expands the opportunities for juveniles sentenced to life in prison to obtain release is rapidly unfolding across the country. This article discusses these trends and focuses on California's groundbreaking legislative reforms, which have created a schema that provides most juvenile offenders with the opportunity to earn their release from prison after serving between fifteen and twentyfive years in prison. While some states continue to allow the practice of sentencing juveniles to life without parole (LWOP), the national trend is moving in the opposite direction, bringing American juvenile justice back towards its rehabilitative roots and rendering it more consistent with internationally...