Plight of Lifers Needs Attention

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A series of articles in The New York Times examining the fate of those sentenced to life in prison makes for sad if compelling reading. There are now 132,000 people in the United States serving a life sentence, and for all but a tiny few the opportunities for parole are dim to nonexistent. In at least 22 states, lifers have almost no chance of being released, The Times reported in its Oct. 5 article. This is no less true of juvenile criminals serving a life sentence, a population that has risen dramatically in the last decade in U.S. prisons. Only a dozen or so countries give life sentences for juveniles; of the four countries currently incarcerating juvenile prisoners for life, Israel …