One in seven American prisoners are serving life sentences
One in seven American prisoners are serving a life sentence in some capacity, according to a new report form The Sentencing Project, an NGO who seeks to reform the criminal justice system.
This includes those who were sentenced for life without parole, life with parole or a sentence of more than 50 years, considered a ”virtual life” sentence.
According to the report, 206,268 were in the situation of serving a life sentence.
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17,000 of them were behind bars for nonviolent crimes, while another 12,000 prisoners were serving life sentences for crimes committed as teenagers.
”Reforming life sentences is vital to dismantling the uniquely American structure of mass incarceration,” said Ashley Nellis, lead author of the report and senior research analyst at The Sentencing Project.
”Imprisoning people long past their proclivity or even physical ability to commit crime is an ineffective public safety strategy,” he added.
Nellis said the number of life sentences has risen five-fold since 1984 despite the fact that the US is experiencing historically low crime and murder rates nationwide.
The report also shows that in the case of African-American prisoners, out of every five is serving a form of a life sentence.
The racial disparity is worse in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi and South Carolina, where two-thirds of life sentencing-serving prisoners are African-Americans.
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