Brandin Thomas (right), now 38, was sentenced to 35 years in prison at age 20 for a 2004 murder he was charged with at 18. His sentence factored in juvenile points. (Courtesy of Bryin Thomas)
Bryin Thomas doesn’t have any memories of his father outside of prison.
“My earliest memory is [when I was] 3 years old and he was at the county jail,” Thomas said. “I just remember him putting his hand on the glass and me putting my hand on the glass.”
Thomas is 22 now. His father, Brandin Thomas, is still in prison today due to the “juvenile points” system, in which convictions as a juvenile automatically add time to a person’s sentence as an adult. Juvenile points were outlawed last year in Washington state — but an estimated 800 to 1,500 people are still incarcerated under the juvenile points system.
At 18, Brandin Thomas was charged in the 2004 killing of Hassan Farah, a teacher and father of three who was driving a cab in south Seattle at the time he was shot. Thomas was 20 when he was sentenced to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder and attempted robbery. He’s 38 now.