SPRINGFIELD - A study released Wednesday urges the state of 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 only to give juveniles sentenced to life without parole a chance to be heard, not to simply release them.

"Should we not hold hearings to see what the public policy of the state should be when it comes to these minors?" Molaro said. "Should we look at [an inmate] when he's 45, 50 years old and see if he's a different person?"

Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins is the sister of a victim killed by one of the inmates in the study. In a statement, Bishop-Jenkins said the study left out family members of the victims and is flawed in its aims.

"There are serious questions we have about how the report is written - from misinterpreted data to exaggerated claims to outright misstatements," Bishop-Jenkins said in the statement.

Bishop-Jenkins' sister, Nancy Bishop-Langert, was killed by David Biro in 1990, along with Bishop-Langert's unborn child and husband. Biro was 16 years old at the time, and now serves a sentence of life without parole at Stateville Correctional Center.

"Advocates for the bill… have given no notice whatsoever to the hundreds of potentially affected victims' families, even though it would doom them to a lifetime of parole hearings which they were promised they would never have to endure," Bishop-Jenkins said.

Molaro said the proposal will take into consideration the rights of victim's families.

"I think victims rights groups may say they're against the bill as written, but they should never be against hearings," Molaro said.

Klawiter said he recognized the difficulty for families of victims.

"We see their input as invaluable and ongoing," Klawiter said. "Our goal now is to simply send the message that life without parole is an unacceptable sentence for children."

The legislation is House Bill 4384.