Cyntoia Brown, William Barr, and Juvenile Life Without Parole

Last week, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam granted Cyntoia Brown clemency for a crime committed when she was sixteen years old.   Convicted as an adult for murder and given a life sentence, she faced the prospect of living most or all of the rest of her life in prison.  Brown, like thousands of other people sentenced as children, was victim to the juvenile life without parole sentences advocated by proponents of “tough on crime” measures, like Attorney General nominee William Barr. As Attorney General, Barr wholly embraced the theory of “incapacitation,” or the belief that extended physical restraint of offenders leads to reduced crime.” Barr’s concept of incapacitation centers on two elements; longer sentences and more prisons.  “The choice is clear,” according to Barr, “[m]ore prison space or more crime.” Applying the incapacitation theory to youth offenders, Barr favored “tough” sentences that emphasized discipline, such as boot camps, for first-time, nonviolent […]