Second Chances Resource Library

This letter to the United Nations special rapporteurs alleges that the United States’ extreme prison sentencing policies and practices of life without parole (LWOP), life with parole (LWP), “virtual life,” and other term-of-years sentences that exceed life expectancy and thus effectively condemn individuals to death by incarceration (DBI), violate the prohibition against racial discrimination; violate individuals’ right to life; violate the prohibition against torture, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment; and are an arbitrary deprivation of liberty.

The appendix includes 44 statements reflecting the experience of individuals serving DBI sentences and their family members.

The signatories urge the Special Procedures to conduct an investigation into the serious human rights violations described in this submission, raise them with the U.S. government, and find that:

1. All death by incarceration sentences in the United States, including LWOP sentences, are cruel in violation of the international prohibition on torture; racially discriminatory; an arbitrary deprivation of liberty; and violate incarcerated individuals’ right to life, family life, dignity, and liberty disproportionately on the basis of race;
2. The United States should abolish all DBI sentences, including LWOP sentences;
3. The United States should adopt maximum sentencing laws to end the imposition of “virtual life” and other lengthy or indeterminate sentences;
4. All prison sentences must include parole eligibility within a determined number of years;
5. All those eligible for parole should be released at their eligibility date, unless there is an evidence–based determination, through a process that meets international human rights standards, that the individual poses a current and real threat to public safety based on recent conduct in prison