Michigan has more juvenile life sentences than almost any other state

Why Michigan has more juvenile life sentences than almost any other state

By John Barnes November 06, 2011,

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/why_michigan_has_more_juvenile.html

A state industry

Michigan spends more than $10 million a year to house more juvenile lifers than all but one other state, Pennsylvania.

In all, 358 inmates are serving life sentences for crimes committed from ages 14 to 17. One in five has been in prison 25 years or longer.

The oldest is 67, now that two older lifers have died.



What the numbers show

Juvenile lifers look a lot alike. They are almost exclusively male. Two out of three are black. Most were 17 at the time, but 45 percent were 16 and younger. Nearly half did their crimes in the 1990s