(From the ACLU Blog of Rights)
By Steven M. Watt, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Human Rights Program & Allison Frankel, Criminal Law Reform Project, ACLU 

Juwan Wickware wasn't the shooter. But he and more than 2,500 others nationwide will enter prison as teenagers, grow into adults, and die – all behind bars.
This is not right. The sentence must fit the crime, and we cannot throw away kids' lives.
Here's Juwan's story: When he was 16, he and another young kid robbed a pizza deliveryman. Both kids were armed with guns. Tragically, his friend shot and killed the man. Although this was Juwan's first offense, and despite a documented learning disability, troubled home environment, and a psychological evaluation concluding that Juwan could be rehabilitated, the judge sentenced Juwan to life in prison with no possibility of parole (LWOP). The boy who pulled the trigger was acquitted because a witness could not identify him.
Juwan is one of over 350 people serving this sentence in Michigan alone—the second highest number among states in the U.S. Today, the ACLU is representing thirty-two of these Michigan prisoners in a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a Washington, D.C.-based tribunal charged with examining allegations of human rights abuses committed by members of the Organization of American States, which includes the United States.
Our petition argues that human rights laws prohibit anyone from being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for crimes they commit as children. Kids are still growing. Throwing away the duration of their lives does not make any sense. Any punishment kids do receive should reflect their unique capacity for rehabilitation.
In recent years, the Supreme Court has begun to recognize the cruel and unusual nature of sentencing kids to be behind bars until they die, and has taken significant steps towards ending the practice. In Graham v. Florida(2010) the Court held that life-without-parole sentences for non-homicide offenses committed by persons below the age of eighteen are unconstitutional, and in Miller v. Alabama two years later, banned mandatory life without parole sentences for children who commit homicide offenses. Following the Supreme Court's lead, some states have passed laws eliminating life without parole sentences for children, and supreme courts in states like Massachusetts and Illinois have retroactively and proactively banned the punishment for kids.
But because Miller and Graham did not categorically ban the practice, life without parole sentences for kids are still allowed in "rare" cases. This means that in 2014, Americans may still be sentenced to die in prison for crimes they commit as children. Forty-four states still allow for the punishment. In Michigan alone, since the Court's 2012 ruling in Miller, two children, including Juwan, have been sentenced to life without parole. Moreover, a number of states, including Michigan, have refused to apply Miller retroactively, meaning that thousands of individuals convicted of crimes committed when they were children will languish behind bars until they die, regardless of whether they grow into mature adults or are rehabilitated.
At today's hearing, Congressman John Conyers, ACLU attorney Deborah LaBelle, and former Michigan State Court Judge, the Honorable Fred Mester, will urge the U.S. Government and State of Michigan to take immediate steps to change this sad state of affairs by adopting measures to ban life-without-parole sentences for children in all circumstances, allow all individuals presently serving the sentence a meaningful opportunity for review, and examine racial disparities in the imposition of these extreme sentences.
The U.S. remains the only country in the world that imposes LWOP on children. The international community has long recognized that people who committed crimes as children deserve a second chance. It's time for the U.S. to follow suit.
(In 2006, Colorado passed a law changing the maximum juvenile sentence from life without parole to 40 years before the possibility of parole. Previously, offenders as young as 12 were eligible for life without parole. However, the law was not made retroactive, so it does not affect the sentences of dozens of prisoners who are currently serving life without parole for crimes committed as juveniles.)

March 25, 2014
The Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) has released a new policy on the treatment of prisoners with serious mental illness that will go into effect on April 1, 2014.  The policy provides for increased out of cell time and individual therapeutic contacts for prisoners with serious mental illness and/or developmental disabilities housed in CDOC’s residential treatment programs (RTP).  The policy adopts a broadened definition of “serious mental illness” and mandates the following:

1. Prisoners diagnosed with a “serious mental illness” are to be considered for placement in an RTP within 30 days of diagnosis.
2. All RTP prisoners are to receive twenty hours of out-of-cell time every week, including ten hours of dedicated therapeutic activity.
3. Many RTP prisoners are required to receive frequent one-on-one mental health contacts with a consistent mental health provider.

Statement of ACLU Staff Attorney Rebecca Wallace

“The ACLU of Colorado commends Colorado Department of Corrections Executive Director Rick Raemisch and his staff who have shown remarkable leadership on this issue.
“Adoption of this policy is a momentous step toward ensuring that prisoners with a serious mental illness are not held in solitary confinement and will receive meaningful out-of-cell mental health treatment.”
Read the new policy here: http://www.doc.state.co.us/sites/default/files/ar/0650_04_040114.pdf

DENVER – In response to a letter from the ACLU of Colorado, DISH Network has agreed to make several improvements on their accommodations for nursing mothers.

On March 12, the ACLU of Colorado sent a letter of complaint to DISH Network documenting multiple failures to accommodate nursing mothers at DISH Network’s corporate headquarters in Englewood, where employees are forced to pump breast milk in front of their co-workers and supervisors without privacy screens or curtains, and at a DISH Network call center in Littleton, where the lactation room is located inside a bathroom in direct violation of federal and state law.

Late in the afternoon of Friday March 21, the ACLU received a response from DISH Network promising new accommodations for nursing employees.

“DISH is to be commended for promptly committing to address the problems outlined in our letter and for taking significant strides to protect the rights of nursing mothers in the workplace,” said ACLU of Colorado staff attorney Rebecca Wallace.

They have promised to provide multiple private places for several nursing mothers to express milk simultaneously in the Englewood office as well as the relocation of the lactation room in the Littleton office out of the bathroom. They have also indicated they are “undertaking a company-wide assessment of the accommodations provided to nursing mothers,” and have identified a human resources manager whose duty it is to ensure compliance with laws regarding nursing employees. DISH’s letter emphasized the company’s commitment to providing a healthy, safe and family-friendly workplace.

“By bringing the story of nursing employees at DISH to light and enforcing state and federal laws protecting nursing mothers in the workplace, the ACLU hopes to change the old-fashioned view held by some employers that a model employee is one that does not get pregnant, does not give birth, does not breast feed, and does not have child-care responsibilities,” added Wallace. “DISH’s steps in promptly resolving the complaints raised in our letter serves as a model to other employers.”

more on this case