Vol. 73/No. 30      August 10, 2009

There are more than 2.3 million people locked up in U.S. prisons and jails—the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Of those in federal and state prisons, 140,610—nearly 10 percent—face life sentences. This figure has more than quadrupled over the past 25 years. Nearly 30 percent of prisoners with life sentences—about 41,000—are permanently denied parole hearings, tripling since 1992.

The rising number of life sentences is not the result of “higher crime rates,” the Sentencing Project notes, but of “policy changes that have imposed harsher punishments and restricted parole consideration.”

In five states—Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and New York—at least one in six prisoners are serving life sentences. In California, which has the nation’s largest prison population of 171,000 as of the end of 2008, 20 percent face life imprisonment. A few months ago federal judges tentatively ordered California officials to release tens of thousands of inmates because of severe overcrowding.

The federal penitentiary system and that of six other states—Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota—do not allow prisoners serving life terms to apply for parole.

Blacks, who comprise 13.5 percent of the U.S. population, are 37.5 percent of those in prisons nationwide and make up nearly half of inmates imprisoned for life. In New York State 82 percent of those with life sentences are Black or Latino.

The United States is the only country in the world that imposes a sentence of life without parole upon juveniles, according to the report. About 6,800 juveniles in the state and the federal systems face life sentences. One-quarter have no possibility of parole. The Sentencing Project, citing a 2005 Human Rights Watch report, said that 59 percent of juveniles sentenced to life without parole were “first-time offenders.” In 26 percent of these cases the youth were not “the primary assailant” but “only minimally involved in the crime.” However, under state laws they were given a life sentence without parole.

So-called three strike laws have been used to dish out life sentences to working people. The law applies to individuals with two previous felony convictions of a “serious” or violent nature. In California a third conviction for any felony results in a mandatory 25 years to life sentence.

For example, Ali Foroutan is serving a life sentence in California after being convicted in 2000 of possession of 0.03 grams of methamphetamine, a prescription drug sometimes used as a stimulant. He had two prior felony burglary charges on his record, none of which involved any violence, said the report.

Among the “third strikes” for which 55 people are serving time in California is “driving under the influence.”  
 
 
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