LIFE SENTENCE
Important Definitions
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Life Sentence: any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted persons are to remain in prison either for the rest of their life or until paroled
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​LWP: Life sentence with a possibility of parole, more specifically: the government maintains the right to keep an individual in prison for his/her life, but there is the potential for release after a certain number of years
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LWOP: Life sentence without parole, more specifically: no possibility of release from prison except in the rare case of clemency
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"Virtual" or de facto life sentence: a term of imprisonment that is 50 years or more in which the convicted person is not expected to survive
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Clemency: the grant by the president or the governor of a state of an amnesty, pardon or reprieve of a criminal sentence
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Statistics
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As of 2016, there were 162,000 people serving life sentences in U.S. prisons, or one in every nine people in prison
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An additional 44, 311 people are serving "virtual" life sentences​
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This makes the total 206,268 people who are serving life and virtual life sentences, or one out of every seven people in prison
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Nearly half of life and virtual life-sentenced individuals are African American, equal to one in five African American prisoners overall
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More than 17,000 prisoners with an LWP, LWOP, or virtual life sentence have been convicted of nonviolent crimes (such as a drug offense)
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Nearly 1 in 3 life-sentenced prisoners worldwide is a U.S. prisoner
What drives life sentences?
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Fear If a prisoner commits a violent crime after they are released, the general public believes that any prisoner would do the same if given the chance
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An intense desire for safety
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A single story can set the tone for criminal policy and practice
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Elected officials want to seem "tough on crime" for political gain
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"Tough on crime" laws: mandatory minimums, habitual offender laws, and the abolition of parole
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Mandatory minimums: sentencing laws that set minimum sentences for certain crimes that judges cannot lower, the most common of these laws deal with drug offenses
*Information comes from The Sentencing Project
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