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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 Wins New Trial for 14-Year-Old Michigan Child Sentenced to Die in Prison

September 2, 2010

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan yesterday granted a new trial to EJI client T.J. Tremble, who was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for murder when he was just 14 years old.

EJI Director Awarded Prestigious NAACP Ming Award for Advocacy

July 12, 2010

Today in Kansas City, Missouri, the NAACP awarded EJI Director Bryan Stevenson the William Robert Ming Award for Advocacy at the opening plenary session of its 101st National Convention. The award is one of the NAACP’s highest honors for professionals in the legal field and was presented to Mr. Stevenson for the work of the Equal Justice Initiative, which this year has issued a major report documenting illegal racial discrimination in jury selection, led a successful effort in the United States Supreme Court to abolish life imprisonment without parole sentences imposed on juveniles, provided critical legal assistance to condemned prisoners on death row and prisoners wrongly convicted or illegally sentenced, and aided many others facing unfair and unjust treatment in the criminal justice system.

EJI's Re-Entry Program Celebrates Its Most Recent Graduate

June 18, 2010

EJI celebrated Joe Garlock's graduation this month from our Post-Release Education and Preparation (PREP) program. Launched in 2008, PREP provides a wide range of assistance to people released from incarceration, including a full-scale residential re-entry program.

In Mississippi Case, EJI Continues to Challenge Death in Prison Sentences for Children

June 11, 2010

Update: EJI lawyers argued the case of Demarious Banyard in the Mississippi Supreme Court on Monday, June 14, 2010. Demarious has been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in Mississippi for an offense when he was just 13 years old. EJI is continuing to challenge death-in-prison sentences imposed on children in cases across the country.

Editorial Boards Across the Country Support Court Ban on Juvenile Life Without Parole Sentences

May 24, 2010

Following the United States Supreme Court's ruling on May 17 banning life imprisonment without parole sentences for children convicted of non-homicides, editorials and op-eds supporting the ban have appeared in newspapers across the United States.

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