Juvenile lifers should get a second chance

A Letter to the Editor
Re: “Supreme Court may review life sentences,” Page A1, Dec. 2.
After serving more than 20 years in the Department of Corrections, two years as a warden at the Avoyelles Simmesport Correctional Facility, I have seen the best and worst of people in prison. Because of this experience, I can tell you that sentencing juveniles to life without the possibility of parole benefits no one.
Many of the juvenile lifers I have worked with have been a huge help to staff in our prisons. Whether by keeping programs alive, training new inmates on how to become compliant to the rules or even in some cases training staff on how to handle inmates, juvenile lifers prove to be some of the most active, mature and often times rehabilitated inmates. These juveniles can live four times the amount of time they spent on the outside in prison, more time then an adult with the same charge even though they are not as mature or as culpable as adults.
Read the entire article here.