Five inmates sentenced to life in prison as juveniles decades ago sued Wisconsin officials Tuesday, arguing the state has unconstitutionally deprived them of a real chance at qualifying for parole.

The lawsuit, brought in federal court in Madison with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, seeks to build on a string of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have found juvenile offenders are fundamentally different from adult offenders and must be given an opportunity to reduce their time behind bars by showing they have matured.

The inmates, now between 38 and 46 years old, are seeking to make the case a class-action lawsuit that would apply to all prisoners who were sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. More than 120 inmates fit that bill, according to an estimate by the plaintiffs.

Among them is Carlos King, who killed one man and severely injured another during a robbery in 1997 when he was 16. He’s behaved well in prison in recent years, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree and has completed the tasks the Parole Commission has recommended but has been denied parole four times, according to the lawsuit and his family.

“Young kids really don’t do a lot of thinking but now, over time, now, he’s a completely different person,” said his sister, KaRhonda Leahy. “He has grown. He understands what he did was wrong. He’s completely changed.”

But Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, the founder of the National Organization of Victims of Juvenile Murderers, said parole should be rare in part because releasing inmates can retraumatize the families of victims.

"They’re saying because the parole board turned them down that’s not a good parole process?" she said. "May I laugh at that and say maybe the parole board turned them down because they’re not a good parole risk?"

The inmates filing the lawsuit are seeking “a meaningful opportunity” to qualify for parole. Their past attempts have been blocked by the state Parole Commission.

The five inmates were 14 to 17 when they were convicted of homicide or other serious crimes between 1988 and 1997. They were sentenced to life in prison or decades behind bars and were eligible to qualify for parole after serving 13 to 20 years.

All were convicted before the state’s truth-in-sentencing law of 2000, which eliminated parole.

Court rules teens must be treated differently

Social science studies have shown juveniles make impulsive decisions, don’t think of the long-term effects of their actions and are more easily swayed by negative influences than adults. As a result, the U.S. Supreme Court has concluded “children are constitutionally different from adults for purposes of sentencing” because they are less culpable than adults and have greater chances for rehabilitation.

The government must provide such offenders with a “meaningful opportunity for release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation,” the high court has ruled.

The new lawsuit contends the Parole Commission won’t release inmates convicted of serious crimes as juveniles even when they have shown they have turned their lives around. Commissioners decline to grant them parole in many cases because they believe releasing them would “depreciate the seriousness of the crime.”

In the last 15 years, “fewer than six” inmates convicted of serious crimes as juveniles have been released on parole, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit contends the state’s parole system violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment and interferes with the inmates’ rights to due process.

The inmates are seeking a court order that would require state officials to grant them parole when they show they have been rehabilitated. They also want the state to provide them funds for attorneys, psychologists and expert witnesses.

Gov. Tony Evers did not say Tuesday how he wanted the state to respond to the lawsuit, but he stressed that he believed those convicted as teens should be treated differently from adults. He noted he visited the state's teen lockup, Lincoln Hills School for Boys, in January, during his first week in office.

"The thing I learned is that regardless of the egregious behavior that some of them have committed, they’re still kids," Evers told the Milwaukee Press Club at the Turner Hall Ballroom.

"On a broader scale, I am one that believes in redemption."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2016 reported that some offenders given long sentences as teens in Wisconsin were in a legal limbo. The U.S. Supreme Court has banned lifetime sentences for most teen offenders, but many Wisconsin cases haven’t been reviewed because the offenders technically can qualify for parole — though they rarely achieve it.

The new lawsuit seeks to address that issue.

The chairman of the Parole Commission at the time, Dean Stensberg, said then that parole was often withheld because of safety concerns.

“If I have to make a call as the parole chair, I am always going to defer to public safety before I take a chance on redemption,” he said at the time.

Eligible for parole since 2013

King pleaded no contest to intentional homicide and attempted intentional homicide for shooting two men during a robbery. A judge sentenced him to life and 45 years, running concurrently. He was to be eligible for parole in 2013.

He entered prison at 17 and was volatile in his early years there, according to the lawsuit. He threw a chair that hit a prison guard and spent about three years in solitary confinement, the lawsuit says. He was convicted of recklessly endangering safety for throwing the chair and was sentenced to two more years in prison, pushing back the date he was eligible for parole by six months.

He then began a period of transformation, his lawyers say. He took classes on anger management, participated in vocational programs and devoted himself to Islam. He is now pursuing a bachelor’s degree.

When he was denied parole for the fourth time, in November, a parole commissioner told him he had served on the “low end” of what was expected for one serving a life sentence.

His sister said King and inmates like him should qualify for parole after serving decades in prison.

“They should have second chances if they’re doing what they’re supposed to,” Leahy said.

The lawsuit is being filed against Steven Landerman, the acting chairman of the Parole Commission; other commissioners; Kevin Carr, the secretary of the Department of Corrections; and Mark Heise, who leads the arm of the department that determines where prisoners are housed.

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.