Should children who commit felonies be subject to life sentences?

I tihnk kids of that age have no clear judgement. They should be punished, but not sentenced to life. (as they don't have the mindset of adults).

The frontal lobe of the adolescent brain is not fully developed. The frontal lobe is responsible for reasoning and judgment and it is not until early adulthood that the brain completes it's development. There should be consequences for any child that commits a crime, but the rehabilitation model should be utilized rather than the punishment model.

I don't really think so...at least not for most cases. If any attempts should be made to rehabilitate a criminal, it should be for minors. I think there may be a point of no return, depending on the severity of the crimes and if they are repeat offenders, but at least initially, we should try harder with the kids.

NYTimes

The U.S. may be the only nation where a 13-year-old can be sentenced to life in prison without parole, even for crimes that do not include murder. This should trouble Americans as should all the barbaric sentencing policies for children that this country embraces but that most of the world has abandoned.

The court must consider the international standard in Graham v. FL and Sullivan v. FL. Both argue that life without the possibility of parole for a non homicide violates the 8th Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment.

The court came down on the right side of this issue in 2005, ruling that children who commit crimes before 18 shouldn't be subject to the death penalty, correctly pointing out that juveniles are less culpable because they lack maturity, are vulnerable to peer pressure and have personalities still unformed.

For the majority, Justice Kennedy said executing children violated the 8th Amendment, conflicted with “evolving standards of decency” and isolated the U.S. in the world.

Roper took scores of juveniles off death row and threw a spotlight onto state policies under which young juveniles were increasingly being tried in adult courts and sentenced to adult jails, often for nonviolent crimes.

The practice is more troubling because it's arbitrary. Children who commit nonviolent crimes like theft and burglary are just as likely to be tried in adult courts as children who commit serious violent crimes. And black and Latino children are more likely to be sent to adult courts than white children for omparable crimes.

The rush to try more children as adults began in the 1980s when the country was gripped by hysteria about an adolescent crime wave that never materialized. Joe Sullivan, the petitioner in Sullivan v. Florida, was sentenced to life without parole in 1989 — when he was just 13 — after a questionable sexual battery conviction. His two older accomplices testified against the mentally impaired boy andreceived short sentences, one as a juvenile.

The Graham case is similar. A learning disabled child — born to crack-addicted parents — Graham was on probation for a burglary when he was 16. He had older accomplices. He was never convicted of the actual crime but was given life without parole for violating his probation.

These were two troubled children not beyond rehabilitation. The laws under which they were convicted violate human rights standards and the Constitution.

I think that if a murder is commited, and the juvenile is of sound mind, a life sentence is just fine. When you end a life and affect many other lives by your action, you give up any right to freedom.