SPRINGFIELD - A study released Wednesday urges Illinois to do away with sentencing juveniles to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Illinois Coalition for the Fair Sentencing of Children released the report. The coalition, which includes law firms, law schools and human rights organizations, identified 103 people in Illinois prisons who were sentenced to life without possibility of parole when they were minors.

Rich Klawiter, a Chicago attorney and member of the coalition, said neurological and psychological studies show that sentencing minors to life imprisonment is inappropriate.

"Children are simply less culpable than adults," Klawiter said. "Because they are not yet fully formed, children are capable of change and rehabilitation and reform."

The study also determined that of those inmates studied, 79 percent were given a required sentence of life without parole without any chance for a judge to consider their individual circumstances.

Illinois law requires juveniles to be sentenced to life without parole in cases involving multiple murder, the killing of a police officer or the killing of a child during the course of a sexual assault or kidnapping.

"There is a common misconception that a life sentence means only 20 years or so," Klawiter said. "Children who are sentenced to life serve life without parole. They are deemed without redemption."

The study also stressed the need to examine another part of the law that requires those deemed "accountable" in a crime be punished with the same severity as those who committed the crime.

Randolph Stone, a University of Chicago law professor with the coalition, explained some of the problems with the way Illinois law treats those deemed accountable in crimes, such as lookouts or drivers of getaway cars who might have been unknowing participants.

"Even though the juvenile may not have pulled the trigger or actually harmed anybody directly, they could be accountable for the actions of others, and the judge can only impose one sentence, mandatory life without parole," Stone said.

The report cited a handful of examples of such convictions, but no data on that type of conviction in Illinois were included in the report. A proposal working its way through the General Assembly would allow juveniles serving life without parole to apply for a parole hearing after 10 years in jail.

State Rep. Robert Molaro, D-Chicago, who sponsored the proposal, said the legislation is intended to give juveniles sentenced to life without parole a chance to be heard, not to simply release them.

Molaro said the proposal will take into consideration the rights of victims' families. The legislation is House Bill 4384.

Kenneth Lowe can be reached at kenneth.lowe@lee.net or 789-0865.