Second Chances Resource Library

After passage of the First Step Act, Lisa Kuffel was granted compassionate release after serving 31 years of a 53-year sentence.

David Mandeville is not the same person he was when he committed the crime that landed him a life sentence at age 18. Now in his mid-40s, David has spent almost his entire adult life incarcerated – and somehow, he has thrived. There are plenty of people locked up like David Mandeville, who do not pose a risk to public safety yet languish in prison for decades because Pennsylvania’s laws don’t give them a second chance.

This report analyzes the fiscal impact of New Mexico Senate Bill 247, which would prohibit the imposition of a sentence of life without parole on a child and provide parole procedures for children sentenced to life without parole.

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

This report analyzes the fiscal impact of New Mexico Senate Bill 43, which would prohibit the imposition of a sentence of life without parole on a child and provide parole procedures for children sentenced to life without parole.

This article profiles Darcy Morrison, serving a life sentence after being convicted of felony murder for a crime committed when she was under age 18. The article also discusses legislation in New Mexico that would ban juvenile life without parole sentences and create early parole for those serving long adult sentences for crimes committed as children.

This is a statement from the sponsors of a bill to ban life without parole for children in New Mexico. The statement announces they are withdrawing the bill from consideration, but that it will be reintroduced during the 2023 session.