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Two sentences show the need for reform

Let’s get this straight: Michael McFarland’s wife dies in one of the most violent ways possible while his children are sleeping in the house – if they were so fortunate for that brief respite from the ensuing nightmare – and McFarland is convicted of “criminally negligent homicide.” His sentence is two years.

Logan Griffith, 19, takes a gun into a pot dispensary and robs that business but never discharges the gun and kills no one. His sentence is six years.

Does this discrepancy strike anyone else as brutally as it does me? While Griffith’s prosecutor acknowledged the circumstances of a young man unduly influenced by an overbearing and domineering father, that fact did not sway the judge’s decision to hand out the maximum of six years. We can at least thank the police officers whose empathy apparently extended further than Judge Wilson’s in understanding the backstory behind Logan Griffith’s bad choices.

All judges could benefit from reading the research on the adolescent brain because it’s well-documented that turning 18 has little to do with adult thinking. In fact, many young people make stupid decisions based on impulsivity well into their 20s, not because they are evil or have criminal intent, but because of their still-developing brain chemistry.

Perhaps some people feel safer when we send young men such as Logan Griffith off to prison, but there is scant evidence that such is the case. Logan will be in the “Youthful Offender System,” prison for people who committed their crime while still a teenager and are sentenced before they turn 21. These teenage offenders are not housed with adults and have access to educational programs.

A critical question is whether Logan will be a better man after six years in this facility vs. two years. More pointedly, when a fully adult man gets one third the prison time of a guy not yet out of his teens, it is past time that we do the decent thing and clean up our sentencing guidelines to make them rational, fair and applied humanely.

Stephanie Moran

Durango



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