Cruel and unusual punishment

Re “Too harsh,” editorial, Jan. 16

Your editorial rightfully characterized sentencing youths to life without parole as cruel and unusual punishment. It did not answer the question of how many of them end up in prolonged solitary confinement in a “supermax” prison. The larger question of conscience is the use of such prisons for any but the most dangerous prisoners guilty of the most heinous crimes. Such confinement must be judged cruel and unusual punishment, and allowing it to continue will someday be viewed as the national shame it is. We have lost our own humanity when we allow fear and vengeance to bring us to treat our fellow humans without humanity.

Carl Terwilliger

Pasadena