Juvenile offenses can count in 'three strikes' life sentences, NJ court rules

[TexasTowelie]

Crimes committed when an offender was a juvenile could still land that person a life sentence as an adult. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Monday that juvenile offenses could be considered under the “three strikes” law, passed in 1995, that requires a life sentence after the third offense of a violent crime — even if some of those offenses were before the age of 18.

The court split 4-2 on the decision, with the dissent stating that the ruling is “at odds with the evolving standards of decency.” The majority opinion, written by Justice Lee Solomon, noted that many states have a similar statute and that it supports New Jersey’s “objective of incapacitating recidivist offenders, who pose a particular danger to society.”

https://www.njspotlightnews.org/video/juvenile-offenses-can-count-in-three-strikes-life-sentences-nj-court-rules/
no more at link

[3Hotdogs]

1. got mixed feelings on this one.

He was a vicious kid and is a vicious adult.

[JT45242]

2. Discipline and punishment by Foucault...

Are prisons, especially youth offender prisons, to discipline and teach better ways to cope in society or are they merely instruments of punishment.

If we treat them as houses of punishment, we condemn far too many to a life of incarceration with brief respites of "freedom". But not real freedom, as those individuals will have no skills for a free society.

We saw the Norwegian mass murderer and are shocked at how 'light' his sentence was. How shocked would most of the industrialized world be that we start the timer on life prison sentences on juveniles.

Perhaps if we tried to discipline in prisons and did not turn prisons into profit centers, we wouldn't need this discussion.