Eliminating Mandatory Minimum Sentences
for Children

Human rights law requires that “no child be sentenced by the same guidelines that would apply to adults, regardless of the offense committed.”

Therefore, to protect children’s human rights in the criminal justice system states must require judges to consider how children differ from adults at sentencing and authorize them to depart from any mandatory minimum sentence or sentencing guidelines that would otherwise apply to adult offenders.

We have helped to pass some of the very first laws of this kind in the nation.