Disaggregating LWOP: Life Without Parole, Capital Punishment, and Mass Incarceration in Florida, 1972–1995

Abstract

Over the past 40 years, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (LWOP) has been transformed from a rare sanction and marginal practice of last resort into a routine punishment in the United States. Two general theses—one depicting LWOP as a direct outgrowth of death penalty abolition; another collapsing LWOP into the tough‐on‐crime sentencing policy of the mass incarceration era—serve as working explanations for this phenomenon. In the absence of in‐depth studies, however, there has been little evidence for carefully evaluating these narratives. This article provides a state‐level historical analytic account of LWOP's rise by looking to Florida—the state that uses LWOP more than any other—to explicate LWOP's specific processes and forms. Recounting LWOP's history in a series of critical junctures, the article identifies a different stimulus, showing how LWOP precipitated as Florida translated major structural upheavals that broke open traditional ways of doing and thinking about punishment. In doing so, the article reveals LWOP to be a multilayered product of incremental change, of many, sometimes disjointed and indirectly conversant, pieces. Presenting LWOP as the product of a variety of penal logics, including those prioritizing fairness and efficiency, the article more generally illustrates how very severe punishments can arise from reforms without primarily punitive purposes and in ways that were not necessarily planned.

Punitive Welfare on the Margins of the State: Narratives of Punishment and (In)Justice in Masiphumelele

“…As residents in South Africa’s informal settlements seek instant “solutions” to complex social problems the physical exclusion of those labelled “criminal” is both a means to “efface” pain, in a context where there is a severe lack of social (and other “psy”) services; a “distancing device” (Gobodo-Madikizela, 2003) rooted in anger at the invisibility of poor black crime victims; and a protective mechanism deployed as a means to deter further crimes. In this context, Amani Pula’s murder became a ‘prism for long standing complaints’ (Seeds, 2018: 193) about police absence, complex social problems (including high rates of violent crimes and drug abuse) and overcrowded informal settlements.…”

Is life without parole an effective way to reduce violent crime? An empirical assessment

“…Of course, crime reduction is not the only justification for LWOP. For example, some death penalty abolitionists have embraced LWOP as a palatable alternative to the death penalty (Barkow, 2012;Kleinstuber et al, 2016;Ogletree & Sarat, 2012;Seeds, 2018), whereas others are interested in LWOP for retributive purposes (Robinson, 2012). These alternative rationales notwithstanding, LWOP's lack of effectiveness relative to life with parole at lowering crime rates should give policy makers a reason to reconsider the expanded use of LWOP.…”

“…More people are now serving LWOP in the United States than there are people serving life sentences of any kind in Europe, which has more than double the population, and it has been estimated that the U.S. imprisons more than half of the worldwide LWOP population (van Zyl Smit & Appleton, 2019). There are, obviously, numerous reasons for this rapid expansion in the use of LWOP, including as an alternative to the death penalty (Barkow, 2012;Seeds, 2018), but one of the formal, explicitly stated goals of this sanction in at least some states was to fight crime (Broun & Allison, 2016;Gottschalk, 2014;Robinson, 2012;Spohn, 2014;Tonry, 2016;van Zyl Smit & Appleton, 2019;Yates, 2015). Nonetheless, as the use of LWOP has grown, several criticisms of LWOP have started to emerge.…”

The power of the pen: Prisoners’ letters to explore extreme imprisonment

“…With some rare exceptions (Leigey, 2015; Vannier, 2016), most of the empirical works that explore LWOP’s severity stem from prisoners (Hassine, 2010) or policy reports (Nellis, 2017). Historical (Seeds, 2018), sociological (Appleton and Grøver, 2007) and legal works on LWOP (Steiker and Steiker, 2012), regularly underline that the punishment denies the hope of ever being released to a number of individuals, including African Americans and Latinos, juveniles, the elderly and the mentally ill (Nellis, 2013). Studies further stress that the punishment exacerbates the wider set of psychological and physical suffering associated with life imprisonment (Dolovich, 2012; Sliva, 2015).…”

“…There is a nascent and fast-growing literature on LWOP (Appleton and Grøver, 2007; Girling, 2016; Leigey, 2015; Ogletree and Sarat, 2012; Seeds, 2018), yet little empirical attention has been paid to the lived experience of LWOP’s severity likely because US prisons are structurally and bureaucratically difficult to access (Reiter, 2014; Rhodes, 2001; Simon, 2000; Wacquant, 2002). This article examines how to optimally investigate some of the most extreme and hidden experiences of incarceration.…”