This is very important legislation.   Please contact your senator and ask them to support passage of the new bills calling for an end to juvenile life without parole sentences when they are reintroduced.

To support these bills you can copy and paste the text below into an e-mail to send your State Representative or State Senator.  You are encouraged to write an original letter of your own, if possible.  The text in the sample letter below provides you with some ideas you can use to construct a letter of your own.

Click here to read a message from Efren asking you to support the legislation to abolish juvenile life without parole sentences.

If you would like to identify your legislator(s) and locate their e-mail address you can visit the following links:

Locate State Senator: http://tinyurl.com/yu5wkv
Locate State Representative: http://tinyurl.com/22bgf9

Sample Letter

Date

The Honorable (full name of Senator)
State Senator
State Capitol
P.O. Box 30036
Lansing, MI 48909-7536

Dear Senator (full name):

I urge you to support the passage of Senate Bills 173-176 which seek to amend the laws governing the mandatory sentencing of young people who are convicted of certain crimes.  It is essential that we address this unforgiving sentence of juveniles in our criminal justice system.  Key provisions of this legislation will include:

        • Prohibit the sentencing of children who are 17 and under to a sentence of life                  without parole in adult prisons;

        • Allow courts discretion to impose any sentence upon a juvenile that is consistent               with public safety and proportionate punishment;

        • Allow an individual who was 17 or under when he or she committed a crime to be               eligible for parole consideration after having served a minimum of 10 years.

No prisoners will be released as a consequence of the passage of these bills.  Prisoners who have received sentences of parolable life or life without the possibility of parole would simply become eligible to be reviewed by the Michigan Parole Board.

The imposition of life without parole on minor children is a particularly cruel and disproportionate punishment that is explicitly prohibited by the International Convention On the Rights of the Child, and is widely considered a violation of international law and fundamental human rights.  Despite this, Michigan is one of thirteen states that have no lower age limit for life sentences without possibility of parole and has made this punishment mandatory.

Please sign on as a co-sponsor and support Senate Bills 173-176.

Very truly,

Juvenile Life Without Parole Information

Juvenile Life Without Parole in Michigan Facts (Charts)

How a Bill Becomes Law prepared by the Michigan Legislative Service Bureau