But is life without parole actual justice?Īs of November 30, 2016, 1,733 people in North Carolina prisons serve parole-eligible life sentences.
Ignoring the law and evidence of rehabilitation, the governor declared, "Life should mean life." See also: North Carolina's Racial Justice Act can remove prisoners from death row. When then-Governor Beverly Perdue discovered four convicted killers would soon be paroled after completing the standard minimum of 40 years, she did the politically expedient thing and blocked the prisoners' release. The 1994 North Carolina Structured Sentencing Guidelines eliminated parole-eligible life sentences, parole, good time and gain time, removing all incentives for rehabilitation and replacing them with mandatory sentences and life without parole.īut the law was not retroactive, and lifers sentenced under the Fair Sentencing Act could still pursue parole through the North Carolina Pre-release and Parole Commission. At that point, for all intents and purposes, prisoners were considered "rehabilitated." Participation in programs, counseling, education, and work reduced the sentence by half. Up until 1994, the Fair Sentencing Act equated life sentences to 80 years. They were beneficiaries of a time when the state was still invested in rehabilitating inmates. One woman was a stylist at a hair salon, well-liked and thought of as a valuable employee. Three of the four were engaged in work release programs that allowed them to leave the prison to work within the community. In 2011, four North Carolina prisoners serving parole-eligible life sentences for murder were nearing the minimum time needed to earn release. We share this article again in the midst of major debates and organizing for prison reform and abolition as a reminder, from an author who is himself imprisoned on death row, about what is at stake in these critical political battles. Prisoners are kept permanently for the sake of vengeance, rather than for community accountability and personal transformation. May argues that, contrary to the advocacy of progressive lawyers and sentencing reform advocates, LWOP is no different than the death penalty because it leaves no possibility of redemption or freedom. May takes on the oft-praised alternative to the death penalty-life without parole (LWOP).
In this article published in April 2018, Lyle C.
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