It isn’t–i.e. people sentenced to life don’t spend the rest of their life in prison. When and why did this phrasing come into being?
Isn’t it because the sentence lasts as long as your life, rather than a set number of years? I assume you’re referring to parole, but this happens with other sentences too. E.g. someone sentenced to ten years may not serve all ten, but we still call it a ten year sentence.
I know that in Colorado, the “face value” of the sentence is the maximum time that you can be held for that conviction. If you have a sentence of ten years, nothing but another conviction can cause you to be held one day longer than those ten years. (Though you will have additional parole following your sentence as mandated by statute.) Since you’d have to work to lose all of your time awarded for good behavior every single month of your sentence, it is very likely that you will discharge your sentence in much less than 10 years. Some states have passed “truth in sentencing” laws that limit things like early parole and earned time for good behavior. Of course, the legislatures and judges know what the sentences mean. If the judge doesn’t want you eligible to be released until 2020, she knows which sentences will have that effect and which won’t.
Used to be that people were given an actual “rest of natural life” sentence for some crimes (and in some places still are), and that’s where the term came from.
Penal doctrine evolved in the direction that prison sentences should be for specified periods or ranges of time, computed according to the severity of the crimes. Thus in many jurisdictions the sentences for crimes that used to call for “natural life” imprisonment (or even capital punishment) were reformulated to be a range whose upper limit was life (e.g. 20 years to life) or in many other instances to be a nominal fixed term greater than an adult would have been expected to have left to live, for instance 99 years. In the common speech and in the newspapers, it was continued to be referred to as “a life sentence” even though strictly speaking it no longer is. This is why you sometimes hear that a judge gave some culprit “six life sentences” – obviously you cannot serve six life sentences, what it means is that the total of all the crimes he was guilty of adds up to a penalty of 550+ years.
In modern times, actual life imprisonment has had a rebirth as the alternative sentence in capital murder cases, popularly known as “life without parole”.
It’s defined by the upper limit not the lower. Essentially it means you’re sentenced to prison for a maximum of up to the rest of your life.
In some jurisdictions you can be sentenced to life without parole, which means you truly are incarcerated for the rest of your life.
It ain’t necessarily true. In some states a life sentence is just that – mandatory balance of your natural life in prison without the possibility of parole. Iowa is one state that mandates a “truth in lending” life sentence for capitol murder (murder with malice aforethought). That’s why there is a hospice unit in the state prison’s medical unit. Once convicted and the mandatary appeals are exhausted, unless the Governor grants commutation to a term of years, you are never getting out alive.
We do not have many ‘whole life’ tariff prisoners in the UK, although there are plenty of ‘lifers’ in the system.
When a prisoner is awarded a life sentance, with a recommendation of , say, 10 years, then that is the earliest they could apply for parole. To actually achieve parole on the first shout is not a common ocurrance as it requires the prisoner to demonstrate acceptance of the crime, especially killers, - something they will often not do if they had a not guilty plea at trial (especially if they have attempted to appeal their conviction) - and they must also show a certain amount of work involving addressing their offending behaviour, from drug detox through to education, behavioural work to learning a trade.
With increasing overcrowding in UK prisons, one problem is that prisoners get moved around much more to make the most of available places, and that will often interrupt any program they are undertaking - it is not unusual for a prisoner here to move half a dozen times in ten years. Each move then involves getting on a waiting list to get a place on a rehab course in the next jail and so on and on.
Looking at that shopping list, and knowing that to even get on the waiting list of many programs takes time, then, to get all that done within 10 years is quite a tall order, and that is even before the attitude of the offender has been considered.
If the prisoner cannot meet parole conditions in the minimum sentance term, they will have to wait a set period - determined by the parole board - for reassessment for release.
Eventually the prisoner will then be released on parole and will be required to meet release licence conditions, which is where the parole officer comes in. If they do not meet these licence requirements, such as making appointments on time, then they are recalled back to prison, and have to be reassessed for re-release.
It is not unusual here in the UK to get licence recalls for all types of prisoners, its something that is contributing to overcrowding - which in turn gets in the way of rehabilitation work - vicious circle really.
Although licence recall can affect all types of prisoners, this licence is of time limited duration, the lifer’s position is is differant as they are on licence for the rest of their lives - the conditions are relaxed over time but they will still have an obligation to inform the local police of where they are living, no matter where they move.
ETA: Crap, misread the “many” as “any” in casdave’s reply. Sorry, ignore!
Here’s how it works in Canada:
When you go to court here and receive a conviction, the judge signs a
“Warrant of Committal” (WOC)
This document is what gives the prison the legal authority to keep you in custody for the length of your sentence.
Every WOC has a start date and a WED (Warrant Expiry Date)
In cases of a life sentence, the warrant expiry field simply states: “LIFE”, meaning, there is no warrant expiry date.
You will never have a warrant expiry date, meaning until the day you die, you will always be serving a life sentence.
Now, where you ‘serve’ your life sentence is another matter, and this is where parole comes into play.
At time of sentencing, judges will normally state when you are eligible to apply for parole; sometimes it’s as early as 10 years, sometimes 15 years, and in the case of a first degree murder conviction, then it becomes 25 years.
Now, let’s say you served your 25 years on a first degree murder conviction, this is when you become 'eligible to apply for parole.
It doesn’t mean you will get it, it just means you may apply.
If they turn you down, you can apply every year thereafter.
So suppose you get granted FULL PAROLE, it doesn’t mean you are off Scott-free, all it means that instead of serving your sentence in a federal facility, you are now serving it in the community.
You will have a parole office assigned to you, to which you will report as the terms are set out.
You might report three times weekly at the start, have surprise meetings by your parole officer to make sure you’re not breaking the conditions of your parole, which brings me to conditions.
These might include no drinking, no drugs, no possessions of a firearm.
If your convictions were of a molestation nature, conditions might state you are not to be within 500 meters of a school etc.
If you are found to break any of your conditions, they have the right to immediately revoke your parole and throw your ass back in the slammer.
So as you can see, even though someone may be granted parole and allowed to serve their sentence in the community, they are forever serving their life sentence.
Regards
Gus
In my state, anything 60 years or greater is considered a life sentence. I’m not 100% sure why; I suppose that it’s presumed that if you serve out your entire 60 year sentence, that’s going to be your whole life. If it’s an assaultive, or “3g” offense, the person will be parole eligible in 30 years for any sentence or 60 years or more. Interestingly, we didn’t have “life without parole” as an option until about 3 or 4 years ago, which is one of the reasons we’re the busiest state in the union regarding the death penalty. It’s easier for the prosecution to make an argument of future dangerousness if there’s a possibility the guy might get out some day.