I’ve been a long time advocate for prison “reform” (not sure what ‘reform’ means to me yet, but I am absolutely sure that the way prisons work today must change). I could speak very eloquently about why teens and younger kids should not be sentenced as adults for crimes they commit. But instead I’ll just point you to this article by CNN about Quantel Lotts, a young man that killed his step brother when he was 14-years-old.

Lotts is one of at least 73 U.S. inmates — most of them minorities — who were sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison for crimes committed when they were 13 or 14, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization in Alabama that defends indigent defendants and prisoners.

The 73 are just a fraction of the more than 2,000 offenders serving life sentences for crimes they committed as minors under the age of 18.

Across the country, most juvenile offenders and many adults are given a second chance. Charles Manson, convicted in seven notorious murders committed when he was 27, will be eligible for his 12th parole hearing in 2012. He’s been denied parole 11 times. Even “Son of Sam” killer David Berkowitz, who confessed to killing six people in the 1970s when he was in his 20s, has had four parole hearings, though he has said he doesn’t deserve parole and doesn’t want it.

But Quantel Lotts has no hope for a parole hearing. At least not yet.

To me, this is a very simple issue. Kids of color who sometimes don’t even commit murder (the article lists at least two youths who are facing life in prison with no parole-one for raping an elderly woman and the other for armed robbery) are being locked up for life with no chance to get out. Grown white men who have gone on killing sprees have have more of a chance than they do.

This is not an issue of do they “deserve” to be out, or can “reform” happen. This is a very simple issue of inequality. When kids of color are being locked for life and grown white men aren’t–that is an unequal standard of practice.

What are we going to do about it?

(and for some really disgusting justifications, notice in the article how victims rights advocates say these youths should continue to be locked up forever because there’s no resources to “fix” them on the outside. Totally makes sense, no? Lock youths up rather than oh, finding the resources to stop violence to begin with?)