We are on a mission to get laws changed in Kentucky when it comes to juveniles and the parole board. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it unlawful for juveniles to be sentenced to Life without Parole, but yet and still a juvenile can be flopped at the parole board for whatever reason the parole board sees fit. Let's say the inmate was 15 when they were charged as an adult, but they don't go see the board for 25 years. That would make them 40 years old their first time going up. Then imagine the parole board flopping them for 10 years, so they wouldn't make it back to the parole board until they were 50 years old. Next, imagine the parole board flops them for 5 years the next 4 times they go up, because again it's ultimately up to the parole board on who they let out and why they let them out. 5 x 4 equals 20, so now they're 70 years old. If this was to happen, it would be considered a de facto life sentence. De facto life sentences also known as “virtual” life sentences refer to sentences that are so long that the sentenced person will likely die or live out a significant majority of their natural lives before they are released.The inevitable is we all have to leave the earth one day, and at 70 years old you're closer to the end of life than you are to living, so isn't that still like life without parole, which the U.S. Supreme Court made unlawful for juveniles? 

In the state of Virginia, the law HB 35 just passed and will go into effect on 7/1/2020. This law entails that ALL juvenile offenders (no matter the charge(s), be allowed to go up for parole at the 20 year mark. Kentucky legislators should follow suit, because how do you know if a juvenile offender is truly rehabilitated and reformed, unless you allow them to get out and show you they can be a productive citizen of the world? It's been scientifically proven that juveniles and adults minds work completely different, but yet and still we're locking our kids up and throwing away the key. What happened to kids being our future? The Kentucky Parole Board DOES NOT have anything set in stone about what an inmate must do to ensure they're able to have a meaningful opportunity to be granted parole and in my opinion when an inmate goes up for parole, it's like they are going to trial all over again. This should not be the case, as they have already been tried and convicted by a judge and a jury of their peers. Prison is supposed to be for reform and rehabilitation, but the parole board mainly focuses on the severity of the crime and criminal history. If a person has already been tried, found guilty and sentenced based on the severity of the crime, then why is relied on so much when it's there time to see the parole board? In my opinion, that's kind of like double jeopardy. When a person goes up to the parole board, they shouldn't be judge AGAIN, because unfortunately the severity of the crime can't change, the only thing that can change is the juvenile offender ways as they grow older, wiser and more mature, so why not focus more so on how the convicted child has changed their ways to become a rehabilitated and reformed adult, which after all is what prison if for. We feel as if the parole board should look at what the inmate has done while being incarcerated and take that into consideration. 

We are also requesting that a set of guidelines be put in place from day one, so when a juvenile offender finally makes it the board, they can't be told you have to do this program, this program and that program before being granted parole, because again LWOP for juveniles has been found unconstitutional by the U.S Supreme Court. When a person comes into prison, they're given all of the rules and regulations and do's and dont's of prison, but they're NOT told what they must do, what classes they must take or what programs they must complete to obtain parole.

A law was just passed where NO ONE under the age of 21 can buy tobacco, but yet we take 14, 15, 16 year old kids and give them de facto life sentences. If they're not "adult" enough to smoke, drive, buy a house, have a credit card, buy alcohol etc. than how are they grown enough to be given a LIFE sentence? That doesn't make any sense.

Lastly, per Governor Andy Beshear, prisons are extremely overpopulated and the upkeep of the inmates is very expensive. One way to get this issue under control and curtail the problem is to let people go that have been in the prisons for years on end and allow them the chance to rejoin and become a productive member of society. I would request that Kentucky enact a law like Virginia, where after 20 years the juvenile offender automatically goes up to see the parole board. EVERY kid in the world has made a bad decision, no one walking this earth is perfect, no one. It's time for a change and it's time we stop allowing the kids of Kentucky to be tossed into the system and thrown away like garbage. A lot of states, not only Virginia, are on their way to enacting a law like this for juveniles. Commonwealth of Kentucky, it's your turn.