To the Point

Life without Parole

In the United States the number of juveniles serving life terms in prison without possibility of parole is more than 2000; in all the entire rest of the world, the number is 12. That's from an Amnesty International-Human Rights Watch report, the first study of life without parole in this country, where 42 states incarcerate 2225 juveniles without possibility of parole, some of them as young as 13, often sentenced after a first offense. Imprisonment takes murderers off the streets, but what happened to rehabilitating kids who commit crimes? Is the idea of juvenile "super-predators" a reality or a myth? We hear from prison reformers, a warden and a hard-nosed prosecutor. Making News: Pakistan Opens Border to Hundreds of Thousands without Aid Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has offered to open the Line of Control which divides Kashmir, the disputed territory between two nuclear powers. Meantime, remote areas have still not been reached in the aftermath of the massive earthquake of 10 days ago. From Islamabad, Pakistani journalist Nasim Zehra, a Fellow at Harvard's Asia Center, has more on relief efforts. Reporter's Notebook: Vice President Cheney May Be Target of Grand Jury Probe Today's New York Daily News reports that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald may be edging toward a "blockbuster conspiracy charge" with help from a "secret snitch," and questions have been raised about the involvement of Dick Cheney. The Vice President's office says he is cooperating with the special prosecutor investigating a possible crime in the public identification of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. James Gordon Meek co-authored today's report.