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Children in Adult Prison

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Across the United States, thousands of children have been sentenced as adults and sent to adult prisons. Over 2200 juveniles nationwide have been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Children as young as 13 years old have been tried as adults and sentenced to die in prison, typically without any consideration of their age or circumstances of the offense.

Many young children in America are imperiled by abuse, neglect, domestic and community violence, and poverty. Without effective intervention and help, these children suffer, struggle, and fall into despair and hopelessness. Some young teens cannot manage the emotional, social, and psychological challenges of adolescence and eventually engage in destructive and violent behavior. Sadly, many states have ignored the crisis and dysfunction that creates child delinquency and instead have subjected kids to further victimization and abuse in the adult criminal justice system.

For children with parole-eligible sentences, unique release and re-entry challenges too often create insurmountable obstacles to parole and successful re-entry. Young people who have been in prison since they were adolescents need help learning basic life skills.

News

EJI Seeks Relief for Disabled Pennsylvania Child Sentenced to Die in Prison

May 14, 2012

Trina Garnett


In 1977, a 14-year-old mentally disabled girl was charged with second-degree murder after setting a fire that tragically killed two people in Chester, Pennsylvania. She was tried in adult court and sentenced to die in prison. EJI is now challenging her sentence and seeking relief for Trina Garnett, whose story is profiled in this month's issue of The Nation.

13-Year-Old Mississippi Child Sentenced to Die in Prison Has Been Resentenced to Reduced Prison Term

April 24, 2012
Demarious Banyard, left, in 2006

Demarious Banyard was 13 when he was arrested and ultimately sentenced to die in prison. He was accused of being involved in a robbery-murder with an older man in a public housing project in Jackson, Mississippi. EJI won a new trial for him in 2010. Last week he was resentenced and should be released in the next several years.

EJI Calls For Reform and Reflection Surrounding Shooting Death of Trayvon Martin

April 4, 2012

The February 26th shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin has sparked shock, outrage, and action across the state of Florida and the nation, and around the world in a way few would have predicted. There are many reasons to mourn the death of a young man shot on his way home from buying candy during an encounter that indisputably began solely because his black skin and hooded sweatshirt convinced an armed neighbor that Trayvon was “suspicious,” dangerous, and a threat.

EJI Honors Children's and Human Rights Advocates Marian Wright Edelman and Wade Henderson

March 30, 2012

At its annual benefit dinner on March 26, 2012, EJI honored founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman (above), and president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Wade Henderson, with its 2012 Champion of Justice Award.

EJI Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Strike Down Death-in-Prison Sentences for Children

March 30, 2012
EJI legal team outside Supreme Court

EJI's Bryan Stevenson argued in two cases at the United States Supreme Court on March 20, 2012, that the life imprisonment without parole sentences imposed on Evan Miller and Kuntrell Jackson constitute cruel and unusual punishment that violates the Constitution.

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