Too Young to Buy Cigarettes, But Here, Have a Life Sentence

 This week, I was talking to another prisoner whose life may change if the Michigan Supreme Court rules favorably in a case concerning youthful offenders. After Miller v. Alabama ruled in 2012 that juvenile offenders could not be sentenced to a mandatory life sentence in prison, additional cases have challenged life without parole sentences for offenders aged 18-25 years old. These are referred to as "youthful offenders." Scientific studies have concluded that children's brains are not fully developed, including their ability to make fully rational and thought-out decisions, until around age 25. If the Michigan Supreme Court rules that offenders between 18 and 25 (or some perhaps even a lower age, like 21) cannot be sentenced to a mandatory term of life in prison, several hundred offenders will be eligible for resentencing. 

This other prisoner I spoke with falls into this category. But what stuck out to me in our conversation was the irony he faced when he first came to prison. He's 45 years old today, so when he entered the prison system at 18 years old, prisoners could purchase cigarettes. However, because he was only 18, he was not allowed to purchase them. In other words, he could be held responsible, to the same degree as adults, for the tragic choice he made to kill someone, but he could not be responsible enough to know that cigarettes could kill him. Talk about irony. 

Youth between 18 and 20 are considered not responsible enough to buy cigarettes or purchase alcohol because their brains are too immature. Yet, they can be held responsible, with the full brunt of the law applied to adults, for decisions they make while their brains are not fully developed. Clearly, our laws schizophrenically apply scientific knowledge. 

I contend that youth who make terribly tragic choices, like those that take another person's life, should be held responsible for those choices. But when we choose as a society to put these youthful offenders in prison for the rest of their often very long lives, we fail to consider the science that proves they are not using a fully developed prefrontal cortex. Their rationalization is severely diminished. They are unable to fully comprehend the consequences of their actions. Our laws ought to reflect that fact. 

I don't believe that this prisoner should have been able to purchase cigarettes when he first came to prison. But since our laws are smart enough to acknowledge how stupid it is to let children purchase cigarettes, they ought to be smart enough to take the youthfulness of offenders into account in sentencing. I believe the Michigan Supreme Court will rule favorably for youthful offenders, at least up to 20 years old, but if not, then the Michigan legislature ought to make the change. It's time for Michigan to start using science to inform its laws.