Giving Child Victims a Second Chance

The United States is one of the only nations in the world that allows child victims of sex trafficking and abuse who retaliate against their abusers to grow up in prison with no chance at parole or rehabilitation. Because of this, I was proud to introduce the Sara's Law and Preventing Unfair Sentencing Act of 2026 earlier this week.

This legislation ensures that our justice system exempts minors who are victims of abuse from mandatory minimum sentencing, encouraging judges to consider the full story when issuing a sentence.

Several years ago, I met Sara Kruzman, the inspiration for this bill, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole when she was seventeen years old. Sara’s story is one many children are unfortunately familiar with: after being groomed at the age of eleven, she was trafficked from ages thirteen to sixteen. After her escape, she returned to kill her abuser.

Without the court’s consideration of her childhood trauma and the darkness she undoubtedly endured, she was sentenced to live out the rest of her life in prison without parole. After serving a little over nineteen years, she was commuted, and her sentence was reduced.

According to Shared Hope International, children as young as thirteen can be sentenced to life in prison without parole, and unfortunately, over 2,500 children in our nation are serving this sentence. Of these children, girls in the juvenile justice system are more likely to have previously experienced high rates of sexual violence.

Children shouldn’t be sentenced to grow up in prison because they chose to fight back. Instead of letting the justice system come to a decision without the full breadth of the child’s history or victimization, we are doing a great disservice to these youth. We must work to create reforms to our juvenile justice system that will empower our future generations to receive the help they need to move forward, grow, and ultimately create wonderful, lasting impacts on our society.