Sentenced to Life: Penal Reform and the Most Severe Sanctions

The explosion since the 1970s in the number of prisoners in the United States serving life sentences is a dramatic change in US penal policy. The United States remains deeply attached to widespread use of life sentences despite mounting evidence that lengthy sentences have minimal impact on reducing the crime rate and enhancing public safety. The political and legal obstacles to seriously reconsidering the extensive use of life sentences in the United States are formidable. Moreover, some of the recent successes of penal reformers, including opponents of capital punishment and foes of the war on drugs, may have come at the cost of reinforcing the country's strong attachment to meting out life sentences and sentences of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP).