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Ed Pilkington: Life without hope [LINK-ZUM]

In the US, there are 2,270 prisoners who were sentenced as children to life without parole. They will die behind bars. [...] Michigan is one of 41 states in America that allows children under 18 to be imprisoned for the rest of their lives. The US is among a tiny minority of countries (Somalia is another) that have refused to sign up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that expressly forbids the practice. According to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, only three other countries - Israel, South Africa and Tanzania - mete out the sentence and they have collectively just 12 prisoners serving it.

[How do the crimes and sentences of these children compare to the crimes and sentences of Nazi war criminals? Karl Donitz, second Reichsprasident of the Third Reich following Hitler's suicide, was sentenced to 10 years. Konstantin von Neurath, found guilty of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression; war-crimes and crimes against humanity, was sentenced to 15 years. Baldur von Schirach, leader of the Hitler Youth and found guilty of crimes against humanity, was sentenced to 20 years. Albert Speer, found guilty of the use of slave labor, was sentenced to 20 years. Nothing can bring back the men and women murdered by children serving life sentences in US prisons. But life in prison for children cannot be the only answer to this problem. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: fascism, prison, slavery

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