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Dear Friend,
On March 17, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, of New Mexico, signed new state legislation banning life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) sentences for people who committed their crimes as children. The bill also gives parole eligibility to people serving lengthy sentences for these crimes after 15, 20, or 25 years in prison, depending on the offense. Along with many other advocates, loved ones, and impacted people, FAMM took a moment to celebrate the passage of SB 64.
I can honestly say I had the biggest happy dance within our staff because I personally know what this means for those who will benefit from this step forward. I used to have a LWOP sentence. I spent 31 years incarcerated in Louisiana for a crime I committed when I was 17 years old. I was told I would spend the rest of my life in prison and die there.
Because of my remorse and regret for the harm I caused my victims and community, I decided to spend my life of incarceration helping others. I wasn't alone. Other juveniles sentenced to life were models of rehabilitation, developing programs to help fellow inmates, tutoring, and much more. This wasn't just happening in my prison, but all across the country.
Children shouldn't be treated and sentenced as adults because they are inherently different. In the last 10 years, states have begun to enact "second look" laws for the roughly 3,600 children who were sentenced to life without parole in prison. When a person has been rehabilitated, no longer poses a threat to public safety, and has served a reasonable amount of time, they can be released. This not only saves valuable resources, it stops needless overincarceration. Because of "second look" laws, 950 people who committed crimes as children have been released from LWOP sentences.
New Mexico is now the 27th state to ban LWOP sentences for juveniles. I hope you will join the celebration of New Mexico's step forward and keep supporting FAMM for the work that remains for the 23 states to come. Every state in the country needs to give people second chances.
Thanks for your support of all that we do!
Bryan Widenhouse
Policy Associate, FAMM
P.S. If you'd like to donate to FAMM and help us pass second chance legislation in more states, you can do that easily here: [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [[link removed]]
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