Reconsidering
Life Without Parole Sentences
for young people
As someone who lost a loved one to homicide, I never thought I'd be supporting a movement to rethink Life Without Parole (LWOP). But here I am.
I want to be clear from the start: I believe some people belong in prison. The person who killed my sister Polly is one of them. But I also believe that for people who are fit to be integrated back into society, that they should be given the chance to do so.
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Something I also thought I’d never be doing. But what I've seen has deepened something I already believed: that extreme, punitive sentences don't actually serve anyone. Not the people inside, not society at large, and not even the families of victims. I've watched incarcerated men do genuinely hard work: looking directly at what they did, taking real accountability, and supporting others to do the same. They’ve rehabilitated themselves. And many of them have been inside for decades, serving life sentences with no possibility of parole.
If you've lost a loved one to murder and this resonates with you, join us.
Survivor Action For Equity (SAFE) is made up of people with a range of experiences and perspectives, but we share a belief in the human capacity for change, and that people who have done the genuine hard work deserve a chance to come home.
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Survivor Action For Equity (SAFE) focuses specifically on people who were 18 to 25 when they committed their crime. That age range matters because the brain — specifically the parts responsible for judgment and impulse control — isn't fully developed until around 25. It doesn't excuse what someone did, but it should change how we think about what's possible for them.
We are not saying people should be automatically released. We're saying that after decades in prison, a young person sentenced to life without parole should have the chance to go before a parole board. To be assessed for their rehabilitation and transformation.
