In a pathetic display of political posturing on both sides of the aisle, the Connecticut Senate, for the second year in a row, failed to raise the juvenile-sentenced-as-an-adult “second-look” bill. Oftentimes when one wants to look at systemic inertia and the barriers to enacting sound criminal justice policy, one can usually lay the blame on political gamesmanship.
The Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill to allow juveniles sentenced as adults for serious crimes to have a “meaningful review” of their sentences at an earlier date (many such sentences have no access to parole at all) than those sentences imposed for crimes committed by adults. The House was nearly unanimous in its approval of the proposal as well.
