Sentencing Project

Trayvon Martin, Kalief Browder and Mike Brown have three things in common: parents who fiercely loved them, siblings who cared for them deeply and dreams that were never realized. They are also young black men whose tragic deaths started a national conversation about our broken justice system.

Researchers sent a survey about their childhoods to 2,309 inmates serving life without parole sentences for crimes they committed as juveniles. The Sentencing Project received 1,579 responses, and the findings suggested high rates of exposure to violence: Many of the inmates were first victims of domestic and sexual violence prior to committing crimes 79 percent of the respondents witnessed violence at home 50 percent experienced physical abuse 77 percent of female inmates reported being sexually abused 54 of the juvenile lifers witnessed acts of violence on at least a weekly basis Based on the statistics, the report states that these juvenile lifers were exposed to violence, which in turn influenced their decisions to commit serious crimes.

Two Washington-based organizations have issued an analysis of the complex intersection of family and juvenile court proceedings with federal immigration enforcement, replete with a long list of recommendations for limiting the impact of the latter on the former.