Cyntoia Brown and an Effort to End Life Imprisonment

Last year, the Associated Press reported that there are at least 100 other people sentenced as teenagers in Tennessee who must serve half a century before they will become eligible for release. Speaking with the AP, Marsha Levick of Juvenile Law Center called Tennessee’s sentence of life “the most extreme so-called alternative to [life without parole] that I’ve heard.” Legislative efforts to shorten these sentences have so far been unsuccessful.