Life Terms in Prison Up Sharply 

SIOBHAN MCDONOUGH / AP 12may04

WASHINGTON - The number of prisoners serving life sentences has increased 83 percent in the past 10 years as tough-on-crime initiatives have led to harsher penalties, a study says. Nearly 128,000 people, or one of every 11 offenders in state and federal prisons, are serving life sentences, according to the study released Tuesday by The Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group that promotes alternatives to prison. In 1992, 70,000 people had life sentences.

Key: Less than 5% 5.1%-10% 10.1%-15% 15.1%-20% * no data avail.

The figures, compiled from the Federal Bureau of Prisons and state correctional agencies, also show the amount of time served by criminals given life sentences increased from an average of 21 years to 29 years between 1991 and 1997.

The report said the increases are not the result of more crime, since violent crime fell significantly during the period covered by the study. Rather, longer mandatory sentences and more restrictive parole and commutation policies are most responsible.

For example, Tennessee law requires that any person sentenced to life with the possibility of parole serve at least 51 years before release is considered.

In Pennsylvania, all life sentences have been imposed without parole since the 1940s, but governors frequently commuted such sentences, doing so in more than 300 cases in the 1970s. But only one lifer has had a sentence commuted since 1995, the report said.

The report cites one-size-fits-all "three strikes" laws requiring life sentences for any third felony conviction as key to boosting the number of lifers. Many of those given such penalties are nonviolent drug offenders.

New York had the highest percentage of its state inmates serving life sentences, 19.4 percent, followed by Nevada, 18.6 percent; and California, 18.1 percent.

• The Sentencing Project: www.sentencingproject.org

Study Cites Sentencing Laws for Rise in Prison Life Terms 

DONNA LEINWAND / USA Today 12may04

The number of people sentenced to life in prison has increased dramatically over the past decade, even as the nation's violent-crime rate has fallen.

There are 127,677 people serving life sentences in state and federal prisons nationwide, an 83% increase since 1992, according to a new study by the Sentencing Project, a Washington organization that advocates prison reform.

The study attributes much of the increase to sentencing guidelines established by Congress and state legislatures that often leave state and federal judges without any leeway to impose lesser sentences.

Mandatory-minimum sentences, which define the amount of time a convicted criminal must spend in jail for specific crimes, have been controversial since they took hold in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when they became part of a nationwide trend toward being tough on crime.

Since then, some federal judges, Supreme Court justices and criminal defense attorneys have been calling on the government to restore more judicial discretion.

In January, U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) Chief Justice William Rehnquist (news - web sites) chastised Congress for passing a law in 2003 aimed at forcing federal judges to abide by the sentencing guidelines.

"State and federal legislatures are usurping the job of the court, which is to mete out justice," said Jack King, spokesman for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in Washington.

"With a mandatory sentencing scheme, no matter what mitigating circumstances regarding the crime or the defendant's background, no matter what the defense attorney brings to the attention of the court, it makes no difference," King said.

Advocates of the guidelines and other laws say tougher sentences have been a critical factor in reducing the violent-crime rate and bringing the worst criminals to justice. The U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites), which supports limiting judicial discretion, has indicated it will appeal cases in which judges depart from the guidelines and impose lighter sentences.

"The current sentencing laws and sentencing guidelines reflect the societal norms regarding punishment, and they've helped to bring about the 30-year low in crime that we're seeing today," said John Nowacki, a spokesman for the Justice Department.

About 1.36 million people are incarcerated in federal and state prisons, up from 850,566 in 1992. One in 11 are serving life terms, the study found.

The federal system and six states - Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania and South Dakota - do not parole prisoners with life sentences.

The Sentencing Project expects the numbers to grow exponentially as more people are sentenced to life in prison and fewer people leave prison, said Ryan King, co-author of the study.

King said it costs about $1 million to house a prisoner sentenced to life behind bars.

"It is very expensive," King said. "We have to ask, is this an efficient use of resources to take someone in their 30s and put them in prison for the remainder of their natural life when we know crime is a young person's game?"

source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-05-11-life-terms_x.htm 12may04