Sonia Kumar, senior attorney at the ACLU of Maryland, explains the movement to restore the parole option to people sentenced for serious crimes in childhood.

Incarcerated military veterans walk to the dining hall at the Cybulski Rehabilitation Center on May 3, 2016 in Enfield, Connecticut. The Veterans Unit houses some 110 prisoners, all U.S. military veterans convicted of crimes ranging from petty larceny to murder and typically with less than two years left on their sentences. The unit is part of a Connecticut Department of Correction program to turn some prisons into reintegration centers to prepare inmates for successful re-entry into society. Criminal justice and prison reforms are taking hold with bi-partisan support nationwide in an effort to reduce prison populations and recidivism. The state's criminal justice reforms fall under Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy's "Second Chance Society" legislation.

Published by The Real News.