US leads the world in long prison sentences: Study

Tori Richards

December 20, 05:32 PM December 20, 05:32 PM

The United States imposes the world’s lengthiest prison sentences and is also a leader in the number of people spending decades behind bars, according to a recent study.

The Council on Criminal Justice completed the first academic study comparing prison sentences among the world’s developed nations and found that American sentencing policies are more aligned with those of Latin America and the Caribbean than industrialized European countries.

“Sentences reported in the U.S. differed from the sentencing outcomes reported in European nations and were more on par with those of less developed countries,” the report said.

“The variation was especially striking when comparing the U.S. to the Netherlands, where legal practitioners estimated the probable sentences for both burglary and drug importation as three to five months, compared to five or more years under American sentencing policies.”

Forty percent of the world’s population of people serving life in prison are in the U.S., along with 83% of inmates serving life without the possibility of parole.

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However, the amount of time people serve before becoming eligible for release could factor into the lengthy sentences. In Belgium, Denmark, and Finland, it’s 12 years or less. In Georgia, it’s 30 years, and in Texas, it’s 40 years.

While the U.S. imposed the longest sentences for homicide and rape, people on average served half their sentences before being released.

“U.S. states punish more severely than countries that contend with higher levels of violence,” the study said. “The U.S. has a lower overall homicide rate than most Latin American nations but incarcerates more people and for longer periods of time.”

However, European countries might catch up in the future. The use of long sentences has been increasing in places such as Germany, where the number of prisoners sentenced to life was up from 21.4% in 1995 to 30.2% in 2012.

10-year-old shoots and kills mother over virtual reality headset

Jenny Goldsberry

December 01, 02:41 PM December 01, 02:41 PM

A 10-year-old boy is in a Wisconsin juvenile detention center on allegations he shot and killed his mother because he wanted a virtual reality headset.

Children's Court Judge Marshall B. Murray is holding the unidentified boy under a $50,000 bond on charges of first-degree reckless homicide. He is being charged as an adult, which is in accordance with state law when it comes to crimes of this degree.

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The boy admitted to police that he retrieved the gun from his mother's bedroom and shot her on accident on Nov. 21, according to the criminal complaint. His 26-year-old sister called the police and the next day more family members would alert officers that he didn't appear to show remorse and claimed to have shot her on purpose. They also discovered that the next day he used his mother's Amazon account to buy an Oculus Virtual Reality headset.

His family also reported to police that he has a violent past that included hurting the family's pet dog and setting the furniture on fire with a balloon he filled with explosive liquid. While the gun he eventually retrieved was in a lockbox, family members confirmed that the boy had the keys to it.

"This is an absolute family tragedy," the boy's lawyer, Angela Cunningham, told a local outlet. "I don’t think anybody would deny or disagree with that."

Milwaukee Police Department reported 194 murders in 2021, with the state reporting that over 91% of murders involved a firearm, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.