JUVENILE OFFENDERS AND LIFE BEHIND BARS
RE “FOR the youngest killers, a glimmer of redemption’’: In the United States there are more than 2,200 inmates serving sentences of life without parole who were sentenced as juveniles. Amnesty International reports that there are 12 in the rest of the world. This tells me that one of three things is correct:
■ American kids are distinctively ruthless and incorrigible compared to the rest of the world, and we’ve got the numbers to prove it.
■ All kids are ruthless and incorrigible, and the rest of the world has them walking around wreaking havoc.
■ America’s got it wrong.
Which is it?
Hall Kirkham
Cambridge 
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