NCJ Number
128205
Journal
Prison Journal Volume: 80 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring-Summer 1990) Pages: 9-14
Date Published
1990
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Although most prisoners sentenced to life terms for an offense are released on parole, good-time, or executive clemency before their sentence is served, there are 31 long-termers at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. These men have all served a continuous sentence of 25 years or longer as of 1988.
Abstract
As the median age of prisoners continues to increase nationally and if current sentencing trends continue, eventually there will be many more long-termers. Of the 31 men at Angola, 27 are black and 4 are white; 17 were convicted of murder and 14 of aggravated rape. Four reasons emerge, from prison records and interviews with the prisoners, to explain why they did not win earlier release: an early record of frequent and serious prison misconduct; opposition to prisoner release by the victim, community, court, or law enforcement; lack of outside assistance; and lack of serious effort on the part of the prisoner to secure his release. However, most of the long-termers have also been model prisoners during the last 10 to 15 years of their confinement. As the long-termers age, they have been given more freedom of movement and responsibility. For various reasons, most of the long-termers have accepted their life sentences and stopped trying to work through the system. 3 references