By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, New America Media

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court took a huge step toward joining nearly
all nations on the globe when it banned teen executions. But it was
only a step. The United States still locks up more juveniles for life
without the possibility of parole than all nations combined.

The High Court will rule on two Florida cases where juvenile offenders
got no-parole life sentences. In those cases as well as tens of others,
the crimes they committed did not involve murder. The offenders ranged
in age from 13 to 16 years old. There are about 100 juvenile offenders
incarcerated for life in eight states with no chance for parole.
Nineteen states in all still have no-parole sentences for juveniles on
their books.

The 100 offenders who are serving the draconian no-parole sentences
though are only the tip of a more terrifying iceberg. A year ago, Human
Rights Watch found that more than 2,000 juvenile offenders are serving
life without the possibility of parole. A significant number of those
juveniles were participants in a robbery or were at the scene of the
crime when the death occurred. The majority of the teens slapped with
the sentence had no prior convictions, and a substantial number were
age 15 or under.

The stock argument against a blanket prohibition against no-parole
sentences is that violence is violence no matter the age of the
perpetrator, and that punishment must be severe to deter crime.
Prosecutors and courts in the states that convict and impose no-parole
life sentences on juvenile offenders have vigorously rejected
challenges that teen no-parole sentences are a violation of the
constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

Hollywood sensationalism and media-driven myths about rampaging
youth -- not to mention the very real horror stories of gang violence and
young persons who do commit horrendous crimes -- also reinforce the
popular notion that juveniles are violent predators. This has done much
to damp down public sentiment that juvenile offenders can be helped
with treatment and rehabilitation and deserve a second chance rather
than a prison cell for life.

This is not to minimize the pain, suffering and trauma juvenile
offenders cause with their crimes to the victims and their loved ones.
However, a society that slaps the irrevocable punishment of life
without parole on juvenile offenders sends the terrible message that it
has thrown in the towel on turning the lives of young offenders around.
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy hinted at just that in his
majority opinion that scrapped teen executions. Kennedy noted that
"the punishment of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole
is itself a severe sanction, in particular for a young person."

Kennedy acknowledged, as have legions of child violence experts, that
juveniles don't have the same maturity, judgment or emotional
development as adults. Child experts agree that children are not
natural-born predators and that if given proper treatment, counseling,
skills training and education, that most juvenile offenders can be
turned into productive adults.

In a report on juveniles and the death penalty, Amnesty International
found that a number of child offenders sentenced to death suffered
severe physical or sexual abuse. Many others were alcohol or drug
impaired, or suffered from acute mental illness or brain damage. Nearly
all were below average intelligence. Some of the juvenile offenders
were goaded, intimidated, or threatened with violence by adults who
committed crimes and forced them to be their accomplices.

Then there's the issue of race. Black teens are 10 times more likely to
receive a no-parole life sentence than white youths. They are even more
likely to get those sentences when their victims are white. This was
the case in the two Florida cases the Supreme Court will look at. They
are often tried by all-white or mostly-white juries. Those same juries
seldom consider their age as a mitigating factor. The racial gap
between black and white juvenile offenders is vast and troubling. The
rush to toss the key on black juveniles has had terrible consequences
in black communities. It has increased poverty, fractured families, and
further criminalized a generation of young black men.

The Supreme Court, in its decision to ban juvenile executions,
recognized that a civilized nation can't call itself that if it
executes its very young. The Supreme Court should recognize that a
nation that locks up its very young and throws away the key also can't
be called the same. It should scrap the no-parole life sentences for
juveniles, too.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His
forthcoming book, "How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge"
(Middle Passage Press) will be released in January 2010.