Reports to note: No Exit: The Expanding Use of LIfe Sentences in America

10/08/2009

Truth in sentencing laws in the United States have resulted in a dramatic increase in the length of time that people spend in prison and a growing number of prisoners sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. This report by the Sentencing Project, No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America, outlines the cumulative policy consequences of mandatory sentencing, truth in sentencing and "three strikes" laws.

Among the key findings are that:

• twenty-nine percent of individuals (more than 41,000) serving life sentences in the US have no possibility of parole; and

• astonishingly, there are 6,807 juveniles serving life sentences; 1,755, or 25.8 per cent, of whom are serving sentences of life without parole.

10 August 2009