The Misattribution of Prison Institutional Risk Among Ethnic Minority Juvenile Lifers: A Population-Level Study

Overview: This presentation will discuss findings from a state-level population, evaluating the misattribution of the institutional criminal risk of non-white juvenile homicide offenders. Results support the non-significant relationship between race and prison misconduct behaviors. Implications for advancing anti-racist smart decarceration efforts by social work are provided.Proposal text: The Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama (2012) was a landmark judgment in juvenile jurisprudence that changed the sentencing landscape for juvenile homicide offenders in the United States. The majority court opined that in the case of homicide offenses of juveniles, their crimes reflected an immaturity brought about in large part due to the lack of ability to appreciate the heinous nature of their crime and a general failure to appreciate risks and consequences. Thus, their decreased level of culpability and chance for rehabilitation called for some degree of leniency and, therefore, future evaluation by state-level courts or parole boards for release. The courts proposed this population of teenage serious offenders to be deserving of an indeterminant life sentence. This group of youth offenders is commonly referred to as JLWP, juvenile lifers with the possibility of parole. However, the Court did not oppose the possibility that their crimes represented a "permanent incorrigibility" for some teenage killers. Although the Court presumed this group would be much rarer, for this group of "teenage killers," a sentence of natural life without parole was deemed appropriate—today, these juvenile offenders are commonly referred to as JLWOP—Juvenile lifers without the possibility of parole.
Institutional misconduct is a risk factor that significantly influences evaluations of release for juvenile lifers—it also greatly impacts incarcerated populations' lives and well-being, including among prison staff. Risks associated with high rates of prison misconduct are also used for evaluations by courts and parole boards in determining release for JLWP. However, a substantial body of scholarship within criminal justice that perpetuates methodological racism has advanced in efforts to identify associations between race and institutional prison misconduct and criminal risk.
This presentation will discuss a study that aimed to critically analyze the intersectionality of race with criminal infraction patterns by juveniles serving life sentences. It was hypothesized that if the non-white youth given JLWOP sentences are not reasonably represented among the actual youth with high infraction rates, this would suggest misattribution of continued risks to non-white juvenile lifers in disparate ways. To conduct the study, we used the population of Arizona pre-Montgomery v. Louisiana juvenile homicide offenders (n=101) with assignments to sentences of juvenile life with parole (JLWP) and juvenile life without the opportunity for parole (JLWOP). Results dismiss theories of institutional misconduct risk associates based on offender's race. Chi-Square analysis of Intuitional risk profiles (i.e., low, medium, high) between racial minority groups, including African American and Latino males and white male offenders, were non-significant. Implications for social work policy and practice to promote anti-racist smart decarceration evaluating exiting justifications for JLWOP sentences are discussed.