Examining Life Sentences in America

• In Event: Analyzing Changing Tends in Incarceration by Race and Offense

Abstract

In the past two decades America has witnessed a near tripling of life sentences, despite sustained declines in crime, particularly violent crime. Today one in nine people in prison is serving a life sentence. Recent shifts away from harsh sentencing policies are apparent at the federal level as well as in several states, but the potential of current reform efforts to reduce prison populations is limited by the fact that lifers are generally pointedly excluded from reform considerations. This paper provides an analysis of life sentences and explores the impact of changes in sentencing policy on the continued expansion of life sentences in the U.S. from 1992 to 2012.

Author

• Ashley Nellis, The Sentencing Project