Kids cannot be sentenced to life without parole in this state. Even for the most serious crimes, they’re eligible for parole after 40 years. That wasn’t always the case. Before 2006, juveniles could get life sentences. But when the law changed, it didn’t apply to those already sentenced. A new bill would change that. District attorneys in Colorado largely oppose the measure. They say it's unconstitutional to change someone's sentence. We hear more about the pending legislation.
Then later on Colorado Matters, there are about 50 inmates in Colorado who committed crimes when they were kids and are serving life without parole. Nathan Ybanez is one of them. He’s grown up in prison and is now 29. Colorado Public Radio’s Andrea Dukakis visited the Sterling Correctional Facility in Northeast Colorado to talk with him.
You can read essays and poems by Nathan Ybanez on the blog, Concrete Echoes. Click here for the link.
(Photo: Colorado Department of Corrections)
