Who are these people and what are they talking about?

Looks like another run-of-the-mill meeting, but it’s not. They are discussing a recent road trip to Angola prison in Louisiana.

The U.S. is the only country in the world that sentences children to life in prison without parole.* The people in this picture work at Equal Justice Initiative and have made it their career to strive for balance and fairness in our judicial system. Imagine you are 14 years old. Your mother’s boyfriend regularly attacks her. The police do nothing to stop or punish him. One day he beats her so badly that you can not revive her and think she is dead. The only thing you can think of is to take the boyfriend’s gun and shoot him. The state decides to try you as an adult and aggressively prosecute you. The people at EJI think that you deserve representation. So do I.

EJI is in Montgomery, Alabama. The drive from Montgomery to Angola takes over seven hours each way. EJI staff make that drive regularly because of their passion for fair and equal justice, and because so many of the children sentenced to life in prison without parole are at Angola. I think that with an understanding of what actually happens, most would agree there is too much injustice in our judicial system. I am glad that the people who work at EJI have it as their mission to represent people who suffer from it.

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*Thanks to EJI, the Supreme Court last year declared life sentences without parole unconstitutional for children convicted of most crimes. Getting state courts to acknowledge that decision, however, is another story. Much work remains.