Should Leslie Van Houten Be Released From Prison

Should Leslie Van Houten be released from prison based on her good behavior after serving over 47 years in prison? I think that in order for me to come up with a decision, I will need to fully understand everything about her. The first thing that I am going to research is the era that she lived in and what was happening in America at the time of her crime, such as political, social and racial movements. The next thing that I will look at is Leslie Van Houten's background and what would influence her to join a cult and leave home at a young age and also what her role was in the murders. Also, I will go over her original sentence and explain why it was overturned. And I will go over how she has been in prison and the criteria that the California department of corrections use when granting parole. Lastly, I will choose whether I believe in
Leslie Van Houten was originally from Los Angeles CA, and she grew up in a middle-class family that was stable until her parents divorced when she was 14. After her parents were divorced she changed and started experimenting with drugs like LSD and hashish, she would often run away from home but still was able to graduate high school. Another thing that changed her was that when she was young she got pregnant and her mother forced her into having a miscarriage, this made Leslie hate her mom and she eventually left home for good and joined a commune which led to her joining the hippie movement. In the commune Leslie met some people, one of them was Catherine Share who Leslie was closest with and they moved in with some others creating their own group that ended up not lasting long because some of them didn’t get along with each other. Share left the group and met a guy named Charles Manson and ended up joining his commune. After Share joined Leslie was not