send this to your legislators in congress
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There are approximately 225 juveniles in California serving a life without parole sentence. California has the worst racial disparity rate in the nation for sentencing juveniles to life without parole. Black youth are given this sentence at 22 times the rate of white youth.
A number of California cases have recently been highlighted in the media due to the background of the juveniles who received the sentences, and the circumstances surrounding their crimes. One such case involves Sarah Kruzan, now 28. She was raised in Riverside by her abusive, drug-addicted mother. Sara met her father only three times in her life because he was in prison.
Since the age of 9, Sara suffered from severe depression for which she was hospitalized several times. At the age of 11, she met a 31-year-old man named G.G. who molested her and began grooming her to become a prostitute. At age 13, she began working as a child prostitute for G.G. and was repeatedly molested by him. At age 16, Sara was convicted of killing him. She was sentenced to prison for the rest of her life despite her background and a finding by the California Youth Authority that she was amendable to treatment offered in the juvenile system.
Life without parole means absolutely no opportunity for release. It also means minors are often left without access to programs and rehabilitative services while in prison. This sentence was created for the worst of criminals that have no possibility of reform and it is not a humane way to handle children. While the crimes they committed caused undeniable suffering, these youth offenders are not the worst of the worst.
As a society we’ve learned a lot since the time we started using life without parole for children. We now know that this sentence provides no deterrent effect. While children who commit serious crimes should be held accountable, public safety can be protected without subjecting youth to the harshest prison sentence possible.
Please consider what the events that led up to the act that Sara committed and that she was a child. She does not deserve to lose her adult hood as her child hood was stolen away. Please support the effort to free Sara Kruzan.
Sincerely,
your name here
http://criminaljustice.change.org/actions/view/support_freedom_of_trafficking_victim_sara_kruzan_2#letter_form
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Comments: 33
If you write something unkind about this kid
I will delete it
sure she deserves some form of punishment
but Life?
No, I don't think so
so be nice
if you don't agree
be nice
:)
Things change so there is hope that she will find herself in front of a parole board someday.
that means no parole
unless Schwarzenegger intervenes
The missing "father figure" vacuum in her life was happily filled by G.G. who would take her and her friends skating and to the mall. "G.G. was there at some times," she says, "and he would talk to me, take me out, and give me all these lavish gifts... and then he would tell me, sex-wise, 'you don't need to give it up for free'." G.G. was a skilled manipulator who knew what he wanted, and just how to get it. When Sarah turned 13, he raped her.
and if we could get Schwarzenegger to pardon her
she might go to college and
be an engineer
or doctor
or lawyer
or astronaut
anything
Hey
If Ford could pardon Nixon
then this Young woman should be too
And I will write.
Jury of your peers my aunt fanny!
you agree or disagree
What did Lorena Bobbitt get? In case anyone forgot she was found "not guilty"! Yes John lived but that is not the point--a grown up is sentenced to or not for similar crimes stemming from "Sexual abuse" and do not serve Life in Prison!
Yes! Fred, I will write!