A bill was pre-filed earlier this month by Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, that would allow juvenile convicts who were tried as adults and sentenced to life in prison an opportunity to be eligible for parole at the age of 31.If a 15- or 16-year-old defendant is convicted of a heinous crime, the accused can be tried as an adult and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison without the possibility of parole.Rep. Leger cites a number of reasons justifying the introduction of this bill.The most intriguing is the recognition of the cognitive change that occurs as an adolescent develops into an adult.The reality of this situation was brought home to me earlier this semester.I spent most of my time as a college student volunteering with the youth group at my church. During this time, I had the opportunity to meet a young man who has completely changed my life.He was a troubled teen. By the time he was 15, he had been arrested and spent time in a juvenile detention facility for stealing cars.Some of the college-aged mentors spent a lot of time reaching out to him and trying to help him through his issues.But late last year, I got a phone call and was told to look at a news Web site.There on the front page was his picture. He had been arrested for stabbing a 16-year-old neighbor to death. He was charged with second degree murder.I spent a couple of months wondering if there was anything more we could have done at the church to help him. There were moments where it was apparent there was more to him than the angry teenager he appeared to be on the surface.He may be the perfect case for those who oppose this legislation, but knowing him and the kind of person he could have been made me realize the complexity of this issue.There is something satisfying with writing off people who commit horrendous crimes. But, as Leger points out in his bill, the developmental changes that occur in the span of the move from the teen years to the adult years is drastic. Few people are the same at 24 as they were at 15.Leger’s opponents’ reservations are understandable. If a person commits a crime, they must pay the price. Once in prison, though, it is difficult to come out as anything but a hardened criminal.There are countless stories of people who spend their entire lives going in and out of the prison system. And there are just as many stories of these same people confessing a change of heart in order to secure themselves a ticket out.But then there are stories of people who truly experience something that changes them. The temptation to fall back into criminal activity is still there, but they have something within them that pulls them away from falling back into old habits.Mandatory life sentences for juvenile offenders shuts the door on any potential for these people to experience that change. Their lives are over.It is satisfying to some part of our most basic human nature to see them as little more than animals or something less than human. But we can be better than that.Perhaps it is time for us to move beyond a criminal system based on vigilantism and toward a system based on rehabilitation and forgiveness. 
Drew Walker is a 24-year-old philosophy senior from Walker.
 
 
 
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