Jerome Richardson is 46 years old. He has spent more than two-thirds of his life as a prisoner.

But now, thanks to a new Louisiana law, he is eligible for parole for the first time since he was handed a life sentence in 1986 for aggravated rape.

The law was passed in response to a Supreme Court decision two years ago, in which the court ruled that sentencing minors convicted of crimes besides homicide to life imprisonment without a chance for parole constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

Richardson, a Jefferson Parish native, was 15 when he was convicted of aggravated rape along with a 19-year-old accomplice. He was told, before he was able to vote, before he could go to his high school prom, that he would be in jail until the day he died.

Does this help society? Who benefits from destroying the dreams and prospects of children?

The Court’s decision and the new law are steps in the right direction, but they barely scratch the surface of the problem. What we need is an entirely new approach.

In 2010, more than 70,000 juveniles were under incarceration, according to the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. While the number has been on the decline over the past decade, it is still a staggering statistic.

Studies have shown time and time again that putting youths in jail or training school has no effect on decreasing delinquent behavior.

For too long, the corrections system in the United States has been focused on punishment for crimes and not rehabilitation of criminals. Prisons have developed an entire culture of gangs and repeat offenders caused by appalling conditions.

The U.S. has the highest percentage of the population in jail of any industrialized nation. The prisons are overpopulated, which leads to increased prison violence and lower quality of life.

Contrast that to Norway, home of “the world’s cushiest jail,” Bastoy Prison, where inmates hold keys to their rooms and help raise farm animals in their spare time. Norway’s rate of repeat offenses is about 20 percent, compared to approximately 67 percent in the U.S.

Here in America, we’re tough on crime. We’re not like those hippie Scandinavians — we teach our prisoners with discipline and good old American grit.

But good old American grit has never worked. It’s not the way to re-teach our prisoners, and certainly not the way to treat our children.

Each year, as many as 200,000 juveniles are tried as adults in the United States, according to estimates by the Campaign for Youth Justice. These children are forced into a boiling-pot environment with our nation’s most depraved rapists, murderers and gangsters.

Is it any wonder they continue to commit crimes?

We cannot continue to try minors as adults. Throwing hundreds of thousands of juveniles into the adult system every year defeats the purpose of the juvenile system that we bothered to establish.

Though it’s unlikely we’ll see a drastic change in the adult prison system any time soon, an overhaul of the juvenile system is not impossible. Juvenile detention centers should be revamped into rehabilitation centers focused on job skills and psychiatric therapy.

Here in Louisiana, we have a proud history of improving prison conditions for children. The Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2003 resulted in the closure of the notorious Tallulah Correction Center for Youth and an increase in alternative methods of delinquent rehabilitation.

It was a great moment of justice in a state with a reputation for brutal and overstuffed prisons. With the new law, Louisiana has momentum again, and now a real change can come.