Pressure is on the Florida Legislature to pass a juvenile sentencing bill to comply with two major US Supreme Court rulings. The high court found that sentencing guidelines must offer juvenile offenders the chance to show they've been rehabilitated behind bars. The rulings, in 2010 and 2012, were based on the idea that children function at different stages of brain development than adults.
This week both the House and Senate passed bills to bring the state in line with the high court.
Glen Mitchell came from Jacksonville to urge lawmakers to give juvenile offenders the hope of freedom within their lifetimes.
"I am committed, and I've grown to know over the course of the 20 years of working with victims and offenders, that these young people need second chances."
Mitchell's son Jeff was murdered in a botched robbery twenty years ago. Ellis Curry, who pled guilty to second-degree murder in that crime, is now out of prison and working with Mitchell to help victims and offenders.
"I knew that the road I was on was going to lead to destruction. It caused me to be in prison. So I immediately learned once I was incarcerated that I needed to change in order to stay free once I got released."
State representative Jamie Grant, sponsor of the House measure, says lawmakers must compromise this year or the courts will step into the vacuum.
"But at the end of the day, we're going to have to find something both chambers can pass – or we're going to have no say in this issue."
This is the fourth year that lawmakers have tried to pass a juvenile sentencing bill.