Lawmakers and nonprofit leaders are spearheading an effort to add Rhode Island to the growing number of states that have abolished life without parole sentences for young offenders.
On Jan. 15, R.I. legislators introduced a bill in the state House of Representatives that would protect individuals who commit crimes when they are 21 years old or younger from receiving life without parole sentences.
Currently in Rhode Island, only two offenses — first-degree murder and kidnapping that results in death — carry a potential sentence of life without parole. To be punishable by life without parole, the crime must be paired with at least one aggravating factor, a circumstance that increases a crime’s severity, such as torture. Currently, the most extreme sentence of life without parole is not mandated for either crime, giving judges and juries the responsibility to determine whether the punishment is appropriate.
The proposed legislation does not entail parole for all offenders — individuals serving time would still need to convince parole boards to release them.
“This isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card,” state Rep. Rebecca Kislak ’94 (D-Providence), a cosponsor of the bill, wrote in an email to The Herald. “It’s an opportunity to ask for a second chance, to ask forgiveness, to turn their lives around.”
State Rep. Julie Casimiro (D-North Kingstown, Exeter), the bill’s primary sponsor, stressed the fact that young people “don’t have complete brain development” in an interview with The Herald.
“We can’t just throw them away” by imposing life without parole sentences, Casimiro said.
State Rep. Jennifer Stewart (D-Pawtucket), a co-sponsor of the bill, wrote in an email to The Herald that research has shown that “brains are not fully developed until we reach our mid-twenties.” Stewart, who has taught high school for over 20 years, has “seen teens struggle to grasp the effects of their actions,” she wrote.
“It seems like youth offenders should have the most capacity to be rehabilitated,” Stewart added.
This is not the first time legislators have taken steps against life without parole sentences for young offenders. Lawmakers, including Casimiro, advocated for the abolition of life without parole in 2021’s Youthful Offender Act. The act, also known as “Mario’s Law,” ensures offenders who were charged prior to their 22nd birthday have the chance to be considered for parole after serving 20 years in prison, but it explicitly excluded individuals sentenced to life without parole.
Mario’s Law was named after Mario Monteiro, who is one of the cofounders of the Rhode Island Freedom Collective, a prison reform advocacy nonprofit that has supported the current bill’s advancement.
The Herald spoke to Monteiro, who was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for killing a bystander in a gang-related shooting at the age of 17.
Monteiro said that much of his childhood was characterized by “unpredictability” and “a lot of trauma,” speaking to living in abusive situations after the deaths of his parents when he was nine years old. “I think my escape from that was the streets and eventually joining the gang.”
“Young people make mistakes and … we can make bad mistakes like I did, and there should be punishment for it,” Monteiro said. “But at the same time, I think it’s important to take into account a lot of the underlying factors of a person’s upbringing.”
“Nobody is incapable of changing,” he added.
In 2023, two bills to eliminate life without parole sentences for all defendants — regardless of age — were introduced in both chambers of the General Assembly. Both bills died in committee.
Now, Casimiro is “hopeful” that legislators will be “open to hearing and understanding the science behind the brain development piece,” she said. She noted that bills are rarely passed the year they are introduced, but she hopes the state House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi (D-Warwick) and the judiciary committee will consider the bill.
In a statement sent to The Herald, Shekarchi wrote that the bill will have a public hearing in the House Judiciary Committee. He did not mention when the hearing will be held.
Shekarchi added that he is “keeping an open mind on the bill” and will evaluate testimony submitted by “all interested parties.”
House Minority Leader Michael Chippendale (R-Coventry, Foster, Glocester) criticized the bill in a statement sent to The Herald.
“This bill does not address minor crimes or youthful mistakes,” Chippendale wrote. “It applies to the most serious acts in our criminal code.”
Chippendale wrote that the bill would prevent 18, 19 or 20-year-olds who commit a “deliberate, execution-style murder” from being eligible for the “harshest sentence available under our law.”
“We either have age limits or we do not,” Chippendale wrote. “This bill blurs that line, and for that reason, I oppose it.”
According to the Boston Globe, state Sen. Jacob Bissaillon (D-Providence) plans to file a companion bill in the Senate. Bissaillon did not respond to The Herald’s request for comment.
Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, wrote to The Herald that the ACLU has “long believed” that life without parole sentences “rob individuals of rehabilitative hope,” which is “one of the purported goals of incarceration.”
Such sentences don’t properly consider “how people can change over time,” he wrote. He added that he hopes the bill will be adjusted to retroactively apply to those who committed crimes before the age of 22 and who are currently serving life without parole.
Currently, four individuals in Rhode Island fit this description, according to J.R. Ventura, the chief of information and public relations for the Rhode Island Department of Corrections.
Monteiro noted that he and the Freedom Collective’s other founders have had “the great opportunity” to “have conversations” with several legislators.
“Sometimes people can have this misconception” that those convicted of crimes “walk, talk and act in a certain way,” Monteiro said. “There’s power in meeting people and having conversations, just to open their eyes a little bit.”
Lev Kotler-Berkowitz is a senior staff writer covering city and state politics. He is from the Boston area and is a junior concentrating in Political Science and Economics. In his free time, Lev can be found playing baseball or running around with his dog.
