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Report: One in Six U.S. Prisoners Serving Life Sentences

Crime and Justice News


Lester Pearson, 84, leans on his cane as he leaves the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola after serving 57 years. Photo by Andrew Hundley / Louisiana Parole Project.

A total of 194,803 -- one in six people imprisoned in the United States -- is serving a life sentence, which includes those serving life-without-parole, life sentences with the option for parole and “virtual life sentences” of 50 years or longer. The ratio is about half that for women. One in 11 imprisoned women are sentenced to life. It’s also an aging population: nearly two-fifths of those serving life are age 55 or older.

That’s according to The Sentencing Project, which just released its sixth national census on life sentencing, a detailed, 38-page report entitled “A Matter of Life: The Scope and Impact of Life and Long-Term Imprisonment in the United States.”


Nearly half of states had more people serving life sentences in 2024 than in 2020. The states with the highest rates of life imprisonment are California (39%), Utah (35%), Alabama (29%) and Massachusetts (29%).

Overall, the nation’s prison population has decreased by 13%. And there was a much smaller decrease, 4%, in all those serving life sentences, including those with the option for parole and “virtual life sentences” of 50 years or longer.


But there’s been an increase in one specific category of life sentences – the life-without-parole, “death by incarceration” sentences also known as LWOP. In 2024, 56,245 people were serving life-without-parole sentences in the United States. That total is higher than ever before and a 68% increase since 2003.

The Sentencing Project report outlines how life sentences are ineffective, quoting criminal-justice expert Michael Tonry, who has written, “Public policy and scientific knowledge concerning deterrence have long been marching in different directions.”


Of people sentenced to life, nearly half are Black, with worse racial disparities seen among LWOP populations and among people sentenced for crimes committed before age 25. In sheer numbers, the states with the highest LWOP populations are Florida (10,915), California (5,111), Pennsylvania (5,059), Louisiana (3,900) and Michigan (3,551). These five states combined account for half of people serving LWOP nationwide.


The report recommends the abolition of LWOP sentences, which “ignore the rehabilitation of individuals who have changed over time.” It also recommends capping sentences at 20 years for adults and 15 years for youth and emerging adults, except for unusual circumstances and the institution of a sentence-review process within 10 years of imprisonment.


“The central point of life sentences is the idea that making punishments more severe will reduce criminal behavior. But the reality is that the mainstream use of life sentences deprives people of dignity, fails as a useful deterrent, incapacitates people who have aged out of criminal activity, and diverts public resources away from more effective crime-prevention policies.”

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A daily report co-sponsored by Arizona State University, Criminal Justice Journalists, and the National Criminal Justice Association

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