Life Imprisonment

Life Imprisonment PDF Author: Dirk Van Zyl Smit
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674989112
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
Life imprisonment has replaced capital punishment as the most common sentence imposed for heinous crimes worldwide. As a consequence, it has become the leading issue in international criminal justice reform. In the first global survey of prisoners serving life terms, Dirk van Zyl Smit and Catherine Appleton argue for a human rights–based reappraisal of this exceptionally harsh punishment. The authors estimate that nearly half a million people face life behind bars, and the number is growing as jurisdictions both abolish death sentences and impose life sentences more freely for crimes that would never have attracted capital punishment. Life Imprisonment explores this trend through systematic data collection and legal analysis, persuasively illustrated by detailed maps, charts, tables, and comprehensive statistical appendices. The central question—can life sentences be just?—is straightforward, but the answer is complicated by the vast range of penal practices that fall under the umbrella of life imprisonment. Van Zyl Smit and Appleton contend that life imprisonment without possibility of parole can never be just. While they have some sympathy for the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, they conclude that life imprisonment, in many of the ways it is implemented worldwide, infringes on the requirements of justice. They also examine the outliers—states that have no life imprisonment—to highlight the possibility of abolishing life sentences entirely. Life Imprisonment is an incomparable resource for lawyers, lawmakers, criminologists, policy scholars, and penal-reform advocates concerned with balancing justice and public safety.

Life Imprisonment

Life Imprisonment PDF Author: Dirk Van Zyl Smit
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674989112
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 465

Get Book Here

Book Description
Life imprisonment has replaced capital punishment as the most common sentence imposed for heinous crimes worldwide. As a consequence, it has become the leading issue in international criminal justice reform. In the first global survey of prisoners serving life terms, Dirk van Zyl Smit and Catherine Appleton argue for a human rights–based reappraisal of this exceptionally harsh punishment. The authors estimate that nearly half a million people face life behind bars, and the number is growing as jurisdictions both abolish death sentences and impose life sentences more freely for crimes that would never have attracted capital punishment. Life Imprisonment explores this trend through systematic data collection and legal analysis, persuasively illustrated by detailed maps, charts, tables, and comprehensive statistical appendices. The central question—can life sentences be just?—is straightforward, but the answer is complicated by the vast range of penal practices that fall under the umbrella of life imprisonment. Van Zyl Smit and Appleton contend that life imprisonment without possibility of parole can never be just. While they have some sympathy for the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, they conclude that life imprisonment, in many of the ways it is implemented worldwide, infringes on the requirements of justice. They also examine the outliers—states that have no life imprisonment—to highlight the possibility of abolishing life sentences entirely. Life Imprisonment is an incomparable resource for lawyers, lawmakers, criminologists, policy scholars, and penal-reform advocates concerned with balancing justice and public safety.

After Life Imprisonment

After Life Imprisonment PDF Author: Marieke Liem
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479806927
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
"Study of over sixty homicide offenders who served long sentences before being released"--Foreword.

Life Imprisonment from Young Adulthood

Life Imprisonment from Young Adulthood PDF Author: Ben Crewe
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 1137566019
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
This book analyses the experiences of prisoners in England & Wales sentenced when relatively young to very long life sentences (with minimum terms of fifteen years or more). Based on a major study, including almost 150 interviews with men and women at various sentence stages and over 300 surveys, it explores the ways in which long-term prisoners respond to their convictions, adapt to the various challenges that they encounter and re-construct their lives within and beyond the prison. Focussing on such matters as personal identity, relationships with family and friends, and the management of time, the book argues that long-term imprisonment entails a profound confrontation with the self. It provides detailed insight into how such prisoners deal with the everyday burdens of their situation, feelings of injustice, anger and shame, and the need to find some sense of hope, control and meaning in their lives. In doing so, it exposes the nature and consequences of the life-changing terms of imprisonment that have become increasingly common in recent years.

The Meaning of Life

The Meaning of Life PDF Author: Marc Mauer
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 162097410X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
"I can think of no authors more qualified to research the complex impact of life sentences than Marc Mauer and Ashley Nellis. They have the expertise to track down the information that all citizens need to know and the skills to translate that research into accessible and powerful prose." —Heather Ann Thompson, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Blood in the Water From the author of the classic Race to Incarcerate, a forceful and necessary argument for eliminating life sentences, including profiles of six people directly impacted by life sentences by formerly incarcerated author Kerry Myers Most Western democracies have few or no people serving life sentences, yet here in the United States more than 200,000 people are sentenced to such prison terms. Marc Mauer and Ashley Nellis of The Sentencing Project argue that there is no practical or moral justification for a sentence longer than twenty years. Harsher sentences have been shown to have little effect on crime rates, since people "age out" of crime—meaning that we're spending a fortune on geriatric care for older prisoners who pose little threat to public safety. Extreme punishment for serious crime also has an inflationary effect on sentences across the spectrum, helping to account for severe mandatory minimums and other harsh punishments. A thoughtful and stirring call to action, The Meaning of Life also features moving profiles of a half dozen people affected by life sentences, written by former "lifer" and award-winning writer Kerry Myers. The book will tie in to a campaign spearheaded by The Sentencing Project and offers a much-needed road map to a more humane criminal justice system.

Life After Life Imprisonment

Life After Life Imprisonment PDF Author: Catherine Appleton
Publisher: OUP UK
ISBN: 0199582718
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
One of the most contentious and sensitive topics in criminal justice, Life after Life Imprisonment looks at the release and resettlement of life-sentenced offenders in England and Wales - where there are very few prisoners in the system for whom 'life' means life. By providing an in-depth analysis of the post-prison experiences of 138 discretionary life-sentenced offenders, all of whom released during the mid-1990s, this book looks at the reality facing Lifers as they are released at some time during their sentences, usually on very long licences, to be closely monitored and supervised by probation officers. Using accessible and comprehensive data, it examines key legal developments within the criminal justice system for discretionary life-sentenced offenders, explores the frontline experiences of the probation officers charged with supervising life-sentenced offenders, and analyses the 'stories' or life narratives of a group of individuals who have committed some of the most serious crimes. It also examines the process of recall for life-sentenced prisoners and explores key factors associated with failure in the community. Of interest to legal scholars and criminologists, as well as practitioners in the field, Catherine Appleton's book offers a major insight into how societies respond to serious crime and identifies important elements of successful reintegration for released life-sentenced offenders.

Taking Life Imprisonment Seriously in National and International Law

Taking Life Imprisonment Seriously in National and International Law PDF Author: Dirk Van Zyl Smit
Publisher: Brill - Nijhoff
ISBN: 9789041117724
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
CHAPTER 4 - GERMANY

Life In Prison

Life In Prison PDF Author: Stanley "Tookie" Williams
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 9781587170935
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 90

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Book Description
Williams, the cofounder of the Crips gang and a nominee for both the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature, became an anti-gang crusader before he was executed in December 2005. In this work he debunked urban myths about prison life and challenged young people to choose the right path. Selected for the Young Adult Library Services Association's Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults list.

Life Imprisonment

Life Imprisonment PDF Author: Alan Baker
Publisher: Waterside Press
ISBN: 190438093X
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
**Winner of a Koestler Trust Silver Award*** and the only book of its kind by a serving lifer. Contains a Foreword by Tim Newell, former Prison Governor life-sentence expert. A snapshot of the most severe sentence available in the UK which treats key topics in 40 easy to read sections. Alan Baker's personal selection and treatment of topics of concern to life-sentenced prisoners looks at subjects across the life-sentence regime. Ranging from the realisation which 'kicks in' after being sentenced in the dock-shock, numbness, hopelessness-to the intrinsic nature of long-term imprisonment, it is an explanatory handbook and survivor's guide. Life Imprisonment looks at aspects of long-term imprisonment from inside the head of a lifer: daily preoccupations, the uncertainty about when he or she will be released, the long years ahead, time for reflection, work towards release, setbacks and coping mechanisms and staying out of trouble. It tells about how a life sentence leads to risk assessments, courses, reports, psychological tests and possibly a period in a therapeutic community and/or a resettlement prison. To this first-hand knowledge, Alan Baker adds his thoughts on the state of the prisons, having experienced first-hand the impact that the justice system has on have on someone serving a sentence with no fixed end date. The result is a book packed with useful information as well as an insider's perspective on the major concerns of life-sentenced prisoners, whether about their sentence, future, their victims or the (often greatly magnified) minutiae of prison life. Review 'A hard-hitting set of survival notes from someone writing with great experience of having walked the walk. It is grounded in reality ... Alan Baker writes with sound practical advice and insight which is not for the feint-hearted. He takes prison seriously, recognising it as the place you don't want to be' Tim Newell (From the Foreword).

Women Doing Life

Women Doing Life PDF Author: Lora Bex Lempert
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479827053
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
"In Women Doing Life, Lora Bex Lempert examines the carceral experiences of women serving life sentences, presenting a typology of the ways that life-sentenced women grow and self-actualize, resist prison definitions, reflect on and own their criminal acts, and ultimately create meaningful lives behind prison walls. Looking beyond the explosive headlines that often characterize these women as monsters, Lempert offers rare insight into this vulnerable, little studied population. Her gendered analysis considers the ways that women do crime differently than men and how they have qualitatively different experiences of imprisonment than their male counterparts."--Provided by publisher.

Life Sentences

Life Sentences PDF Author: Wilbert Rideau
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Drawing on their award-winning reporting for the Louisiana State Penitentiary's uncensored newsmagazine, The Angolite, Wilbert Rideau and Ron Wikberg present the stark reality of life behind bars and the human, political, and fiscal costs of our long-running war on crime.