The United States was the only country to condemn minors to life in prison with no chance for parole. In recent years, the Supreme Court has ruled this unconstitutional. Yet this investigation, a collaboration between the Howard Center and PBS NewsHour, found that more than 2,000 so-called juvenile lifers remain in prison in what the court says is cruel and unusual punishment.
The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
Supreme Court Decisions
Beginning in 2005, the Court overturned many of the harshest policies aimed at juveniles.
Michigan and Florida Go Different Routes
Both states had large numbers of juveniles sentenced to life without parole. Both have hit speed bumps as they try to respond to the Supreme Court.
Parole In The Hands Of Governors
In most states parole commissions decide who should be released. Only three require the governor to sign paroles. Each state has handled the court’s rulings differently.
Pennsylvania’s About-Face
In the Keystone State more than 500 juveniles served sentences of life without parole. Today many of them have been resentenced, many to time served.
Meet The Juvenile Lifers
Earl Young and Calvin McNeill went to prison determined to win parole. They have spent a combined 72 years behind bars.
The Victims’ Side
Juvenile lifers have committed horrible crimes that have stolen loved ones from their families. How do we deal with their pain?
The Glendening Effect
Former Gov. Parris Glendening’s “life means life” policy changes criminal sentences for hundreds of prisoners. It is a decision he calls “a mistake,” but its impact continues to this day.
Code Red: Baltimore’s Climate Divide
This collaboration with NPR and Wide Angle Youth Media vividly illustrated the price humans pay as the planet gets hotter. With an abundance of concrete and little shade, urban heat islands like one in Baltimore are getting hotter faster and staying hotter longer. And the people who live there are often sicker, poorer and less able to protect themselves.The investigation, using heat and humidity sensors the students built, found that rising temperatures in such neighborhoods will mean more trips to the hospital for heart, kidney and lung ailments. Drugs to treat mental illness and diabetes won’t work as well. And pregnant women will give birth to more children with more medical problems. Solutions exist. But growing more trees to undo decades of discriminatory redlining, and rebuilding streets and sidewalks to reflect the heat are expensive — and take time.
In urban heat islands, climate crisis hits harder
In Baltimore, the burden of rising temperatures isn’t shared.