
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


The United States is the only country to sentence children to full life terms in prison. In many states, until recently, under-18s convicted of certain crimes were automatically locked up for life without the possibility of parole. But the US Supreme Court has now banned those mandatory sentences – and the approximately 2,000 Americans who were given them stand a chance of getting out. Elizabeth Davies travels to the United States to meet some of those given life sentences as teenagers. How are they dealing with the prospect of freedom after believing they’d spend their entire lives in prison?
By BBC World Service4.3
16071,607 ratings
The United States is the only country to sentence children to full life terms in prison. In many states, until recently, under-18s convicted of certain crimes were automatically locked up for life without the possibility of parole. But the US Supreme Court has now banned those mandatory sentences – and the approximately 2,000 Americans who were given them stand a chance of getting out. Elizabeth Davies travels to the United States to meet some of those given life sentences as teenagers. How are they dealing with the prospect of freedom after believing they’d spend their entire lives in prison?

7,639 Listeners

375 Listeners

1,046 Listeners

5,520 Listeners

964 Listeners

584 Listeners

1,763 Listeners

1,049 Listeners

358 Listeners

583 Listeners

965 Listeners

407 Listeners

410 Listeners

731 Listeners

849 Listeners

366 Listeners

986 Listeners

3,177 Listeners

1,003 Listeners

720 Listeners

1,002 Listeners

386 Listeners