Location: The Heritage Foundation's Allison Auditorium

Life without parole for the very worst juvenile offenders is reasonable, constitutional, and (appropriately) rare.  In response to the Western world’s worst juvenile crime problem, legislators in nearly every state have enacted this measure to protect citizens and hold these dangerous criminals accountable.  But the continued viability of these sentences is at risk from misleading activist campaigns and court cases – including two before the Supreme Court – that  seek to substitute international law for legislative judgments and constitutional text.

To set the record straight, The Heritage Foundation is releasing Adult Time for Adult Crimes, a landmark report on juvenile violent crime in the United States, the use of life without parole sentences for juvenile offenders, and the legal and constitutional basis of sentencing.  The panelists will discuss the brutal reality of juvenile crime and the risk of allowing judges to second-guess all criminal sentences, activists’ ultimate goal.