Atlanta Progressive News

A new study from The Sentencing Project finds that 1 out of every 11 inmates serving time in state and federal prisons have a life sentence. 

“No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America” documents 140,610 persons serving a life term in 2008 out of 2.3 million (9.5 percent) total inmates. The 2008 figure is a four-fold increase since 1984 when only 34,000 inmates had a life sentence.

“While persons serving life sentences include those who present a serious threat to public safety, they also include those for whom the length of sentence is questionable,” the study notes. “In particular, life without parole sentences often represent a misuse of limited correctional resources and discount the capacity for personal growth and rehabilitation that comes with the passage of time. This report challenges the supposition that all life sentences are necessary to keep the public safe, compared to a term of fewer years.”  

Of those serving life, 29 percent, or 41,095 have no chance of parole. Between 2003 and 2008, this figure increased 22 percent from 33,633. In 1992, only 12,453 inmates were serving life without parole.

“The median length of time served prior to parole eligibility nationally is in the range of 25 years,” the study finds. “However, eligibility does not equate to release and, owing to the reticence of review boards and governors, it has become increasingly difficult for persons serving a life sentence to be released on parole.” 

In Georgia, 7,193 inmates, or 13 percent of the prison population, are serving a life sentence. There are 486 of those, or .9 percent of the total population, serving life without parole.

The Sentencing Project notes that though the total U.S. prison population is 37.5 percent African-American, the same group represents 48.3 percent of the life-sentenced population.

In Georgia, there are 5,103 African-Americans serving a life sentence, or 70.9 percent of the 7,193 total prisoners serving a life term. That puts Georgia behind only Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, and Louisiana in this category.

Here’s what the study had to say about Hispanics:

It is more difficult to identify the involvement of Hispanics in the criminal justice system due to frequent state-level data shortcomings; often, the category of ethnicity is combined with race, resulting in a serious undercount of the national Hispanic population. Nevertheless, when counted accurately, Hispanics are usually shown to be overrepresented in various stages of the criminal justice system.  For instance, even though Hispanics represent 15 percent of the general population, 22.3 percent of those in prison are Hispanic. In our survey of individuals serving life sentences, we find that the 20,309 Hispanics serving a life sentence comprise 14.4 percent of all persons serving a life sentence, a figure lower than their proportion of the general prison population.

The study makes several recommendations, including eliminating life without parole sentences and replacing political appointees on parole boards with correctional professionals, in order to reduce the number of needless life and life without parole sentences.