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Conversation
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Oregon’s inm ate
population a t a glance
':
Incarcerated in prison (2016):
15,150
12,500
10,000
7,500
5,000
2,500
J*
Total population incarcerated (jail and prison, 2016):
20,780
Life sentences (2016): . 552 (3.8% of total prison population)
Life without parole (2016):
BV ANN-DERRICK CAILLOT
S TA FF W R IT E R
Nellis, The Sentencing Project’s senior
research analyst, spoke to Street Roots
about the impact of life sentences and the
progress of the criminal justice reform
movement
on the part o f the public?
A.N.: One is that if people commit a
o you believe that everyone has the
serious crime, there is this belief that they
potential to change? That everyone
are so deranged that they’ll always be that
deserves a second chance? That it’s
way and that there’s no point in trying to
never too late to become a better person? A nn-D errick G aillot: As you discuss in
give them a second chance because they’re
If so, your operating ethos is opposite to
“The Meaning of Life,” life imprisonment
just going to offend again. But the research
that of the U.S. justice system, where over
doesn’t get as much focus in conversations
- and by research I mean when we look at
200,000 incarcerated people are serving life
about prison reform as, say, the war on drugs
people who are released on life sentences -
sentences.
or the death penalty. Why do you
their recidivism is extremely low
More than 17,000 are doing so for
think life imprisonment and lifers
in the range of 5 percent or less.
nonviolent crimes, and about 12,000 are
get overlooked?
So it’s much lower than the
doing so for crimes committed when they
average recidivism rate. So that
Ashley Nellis: Well I think it’s
were younger than 18.
a difficult conversation to have
idea just not does not bear out in
In “The Meaning of Life,” a new book
because a lot of the people who
the evidence.
from The Sentencing Project, a criminal
are serving life sentences have
And then there’s a
justice reform organization, authors Marc
committed serious crimes. So you
misunderstanding around life
Mauer and Ashley Nellis explain how we got
know there’s a legitimate amount
imprisonment being the humane
here and how we, as a nation, can possibly
of worry that if we go lax on
A shley N ellis
alternative to the death penalty.
move forward.
them, then we’re going to have
We are avid opponents of the
Presenting decades’ worth of data on
increases in crime. But the
death penalty, and The Sentencing Project
incarcerated individuals, the book lays out
science on that just doesn’t support those
tries
to get people to think beyond just
the ineffectiveness and public resource
worries. And so we try to make the claim
those two options. There’s a range of
drain life sentences have on American
that if we want to improve public safety, the
sentencing options for individuals, including
society, as well as the reality that life
best way to do that is to focus on front-end
some components of punishment and some
imprisonment is no more humane or
approaches - that is prevention and early
components of rehabilitation. Other
effective than the death penalty.
intervention and more supports to
Western democracies rarely use life
Interspersed between chapters are short
communities where we already know there
imprisonment because they view the
profiles of people who were sentenced to
is violence and serious crime - rather than
criminal justice system as being a
life in prison by journalist and former lifer
on the back end, with extending sentences,
rehabilitative service for people who have
Kerry Myers.
because they just don’t have any sort of
gone astray.
As a whole, “The Meaning of Life” offers
deterrent value.
an eye-opening examination of a group of
A.D.G.: One o f the book’s arguments is that
A.D.G.: From a science and research
people often overlooked and it challenges
there should be a nationwide 20year cap on
standpoint,
what
do
you
think
is
the
most
the insidious idea that anyone deserves to
prison sentences. Why do you think that is a
generally misunderstood aspect o f life sentences
be thrown away.
good solution?
D
'
<
-
......
A.N.: O u r view is th a t th e c rim in al jusUWT .
system should have ample time to reform
the individual because clearly they need
some rehabilitation, and that 20 years is
enough time for that in most cases. In many
countries, 20 years is practically considered
a life sentence. So it is possible, and it’s
actually in practice in many other countries. t
We think that in order to really see a
reduction in our reliance on the corrections
system as the only tool in response to
crime, we have to severely limit the range of
available sentences, and we do that by
shortening that upper bound from life down
to 20 years. That will have a subsequent
effect on other crimes that get lengthy
sentences like robberies and burglaries.
A.D.G.: Tell me about the decision to
include profiles o f lifers alongside the research
you present.
A.N.: The value that’s added by including
those lifers and family members of lifers is
that we are reminded as readers, forced to
remember, that these are human beings
whose lives are touched by this sentence.
Mothers and children and sisters and
brothers, employers, they’re all affected by
the life sentence that’s given to one
individual. All those lives must shift to
adjust to the fact that this person is going to
be incarcerated for the rest of their life. It’s
helpful to know it’s not just one life you’re
throwing away when you do th a t It’s
sometimes a whole family or a whole
childhood. In two cases, the individual
profiled h a s actually
started writing the book. So it’s helpful to
know that sometimes, not often enough,
when there is a second look given to these
folks, we see that they do deserve a life on
the outside. And then, for some of them,
they have really gone above and beyond
anything that many of us would have been
able to do when enduring a life sentence. So
I think about one lifer named Justin
Singleton and all that he accomplishes in
prison in term s of mentoring and vocational
skills.
A.D.G.: In writing this book, did you find
hopeful signs that doing away with life
sentences is an achievable goal in the near
future?
A.N.: I think it’s going to be a tough fight,
but the first part of this work is really a
public education campaign. Most people
aren’t aware that we give life sentences so
frequently and to so many people, including
juveniles and people who have been victims
of domestic violence. So the first step is to
give folks a lay of the land. I think that there
is good cause for optimism because there
are progressive decision makers emerging
around the country, prosecutors who are
very reform minded, judges, lawmakers, and
the American public. Films have done a lot
to shed light on our criminal justice system,
which is behind the shadows in many ways.
So I think the confluence of all those things
puts us in a good place to take this
conversation about dismantling mass
incarceration to that next level.
118 (0.8% of total prison population)
1,113
Juveniles in custody (2015):
Corrections expenditures (2016):
BY GENDER
Men:
$1.019 b illio n
(2016)
13,846
Women:
1,304
BY RACE/ETHNICITY
White (per 100,000):
366
Black (per 100,000):
2,061
Hispanic (per 100,000):
RECIDIVISM
(2014)
395
(5.6 black inmates for every white inmate)
(1.1 Hispanic inmates for every white inmate)
(July -December 2013 releases)
Within three years of release from prison or from a felony jail sentence:
Re-incarcerated for a new felony crime:
18%
Convicted of a new misdemeanor or felony:
41%
SOURCES: CO R R EC TIO N S P O P U L A T IO N : U S. B U R E A U O F JUSTICE STATISTICS; TH E S E N TE N C IN G PROJECT; R E C ID IV IS M :
O R E G O N D E P A R T M E N T OF CO R R EC TIO N S ; JU V EN ILE P O P U L A T IO N : U.S. OFFICE O F JU V EN ILE JUSTICE A N D
D E L IN Q U E N C Y PR EVENTIO N
G R A P H : S E NTE NC IN G P RO JECT.O RG
P H O T O BY S A Y A N _M O O N G K L A N G /IS T O C K