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August 22, 2008
THE MEANING OF "LIFE": LONG PRISON SENTENCES IN CONTEXT LIFERS IN PRISON
THE MEANING OF "LIFE": LONG PRISON SENTENCES IN CONTEXT LIFERS IN PRISON
This is from the Sentencing Project from 2002/2003
The number of persons serving life sentences has grown along with the
increase in the overall prison population of recent decades. Our national survey obtained data on lifers in prison from state and federal corrections systems as of 2002/2003.
Data were obtained either from the website or direct contact with the
departments of corrections. There are now a record 127,677 persons serving a life sentence in state or federal prison.
Overall, one of every eleven (9.4%) inmates is now serving a life term.In recent years policy changes have also increased the number of persons serving a sentence of life without parole.
Our survey finds that one of every four lifers – 33,633 persons – is now serving a sentence of life without parole.
Imprisonment of lifers has grown nationwide, but is particularly
significant in a number of states:•In 12 states more than 10% of the prison population is serving a life term; in California and New York the proportions are approaching one of every five inmates.
•The use of life without parole statutes is dramatic as well. In Louisiana and Pennsylvania one of every ten prisoners is serving a life sentence, all of which are sentences of life without the possibility of parole.
•In four other states -- Illinois, Iowa, Maine, and South Dakota -- and the federal system, all life sentences are life without parole. While mechanisms for release exist in each of these states, the presumptive sentence is that offenders will never be released.
There are also significant variations in the degree to which states employ both life sentences and life without parole. New York, for example,maintains the highest proportion (19.4%) of lifers
in its prison population, yet uses sentences of life without parole very sparingly (0.1%).
Overall,the lifer proportion of the prison population varies from 0.9% in Indiana to 19.4% in New York.
And in terms of the use of life without parole, four states – Alaska,Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas – have no such inmates, while Louisiana leads the nation with 10.6%.
(Note, though, that Texas holds the second largest number of people on death row in the nation.)
**=36 of the 45 persons serving a life sentence in Maine are serving life without parole. The remaining nine persons were sentenced to life prior to a law that mandates that all life sentences be imposed without parole.
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Posted by lois at August 22, 2008 09:20 AM