Over 200k people are serving life in U.S. prisons. These are the consequences | Hacker News Reader

Over 200k people are serving life in U.S. prisons. These are the consequences

injusticewatch.org

14 pointspaulpauper17 comments

> The study recommended abolishing life without parole and limiting all life sentences to 20 years, except where a person remains a public safety risk after serving time.

Are there any examples of prisoners who have served 20 years or more of a life sentence but wouldn't currently be considered a public safety risk?

There are thousands of people serving life sentences for non-violent crime [1]. I can't be sure any of them has served two decades already but it seems likely.

[1] https://www.aclu.org/report/living-death-life-without-parole...

Read a few of the case studies. These people are either career criminals or large scale drug dealers.

In some cases that seems entirely appropriate. For example, Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for ruining thousands of peoples' lives. Or what about someone who traffics a significant amount of fentanyl, leading to multiple overdoses and deaths?

Free Leonard Peltier!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peltier

How did he run for president while incarcerated? If elected, would they serve from prison, or? Self-pardon?

Yes. He's a political prisoner, 77 yo, and of no danger to anyone.

Only if you do not consider big time drug dealers a safety risk. I cannot believe the ACLU wants to spring a corrupt drug involved cop from prison.

There are many people serving extremely long sentences due to things like 3 strike laws and mandatory minimums. Unfortunately it comes down to perverse incentives. It’s a lot easier to get elected by being “tough on crime” rather than practicing empathy and developing systems to provide the tools and skills necessary to help people become productive members of society.

Once a person enters the cycle it’s very difficult to exit it. You grow up in a bad situation, get busted for a crime, serve time and exit, lacking the skills to be successful. You’re labeled as a criminal and surrounded by trip wires ready to send you back. Society then uses the fact that you got sent back as proof of why we need tougher sentencing, lobbied on by private prisons who make more money the more people who are locked up. The average person doesn’t stand a chance against that.

I used to believe in harsh sentencing and that people got what they deserved because they violated the law but the more I really learned about the justice system the more I realized it’s not only harming those caught up in it but helping to push society in a direction of even less empathy and human compassion.

I’m not saying we should do away with criminal punishment but I think we should reconsider whether the system and the incentives surrounding the status quo are how we want to treat members of our society and whether this is the legacy we want to leave.

Setting harsh minimums and removing judicial discretion serves no-one. If anything the laws should set the maximum sentences that a judge can impose and allow the judge to determine which punishment fits the crime.

America has the highest incarceration rate in the world except Seychelles.

Furthermore, the US is generally unconcerned with rehabilitation, prisoner welfare, and is most concerned with locking up as many people as possible in for-profit prisons and throwing away the key.

There is no consideration of "Hey, this person in prison should be genuinely rehabilitated because they may become my neighbor after they're released."

America doesn't care about people who enter the criminal justice system, homelessness, mental healthcare, universal healthcare, or livable wages. In reality, Americans, imprisoned or not, who aren't rich (95% or so) don't know how bad they have it compared to the rest of the world.

All throughout Western Europe, yes (particularly in the North - with the notable exception of England). It's standard practice here to not exceed 20 years incarceration except in very extreme circumstances (and usually nowhere near that long to begin with).

But European countries have a very different view of the purpose of prisons and the conditions within.

Listen and watch works by Chris Hedges. He teaches in prisons and notices many aging, nearly cripple African-American men in for life for petty crimes.

In the rest of the world, actual life sentences are unheard of short of terrorism and mass murder. 21 years IIRC is the standard maximum for many European countries (i.e., Norway) for most serious violent crimes. The person will likely have changed being 35-40+ years of age. If not rehabilitated (which the US doesn't care about), Norway can extend sentences in 5 year increments like a parole board.

Another article that notices a racial disparity in prison sentences then infers the cause must be racial inequality in the sentencing.

I'd like to see jaut one analyze the socio-economic and educational levels of these offenders and see if there are factors that go beyond race. Overly harsh punishments are a problem for everyone but maybe there are other factors at play here that funnel minorities into the justice system in higher numbers.

There are numerous holistic and historical factors that throw more people into the jaws of the unforgiving US criminal justice system:

1. School-to-prison pipeline [i]

2. For-profit prisons

3. Mandatory minimums

4. Three-strikes laws

5. Over-policing minority and poor areas

6. Racial profiling [ii]

7. Lack of adequate universal mental healthcare

8. The War on Drugs

9. Lack of opportunities + crimes of desperation and despair

10. Poverty leads to inadequate defense and conviction or pleading out to something they didn't do because overworked public defenders are a cruel joke

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i. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School-to-prison_pipeline

ii. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_profiling

Let's name it for what it is: voter disenfranchisement on an industrial scale.

This article was written Feb 25, 2021 but its a great short read about the philosophy behind this subject.

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