Scientific Library of Tomsk State University

   E-catalog        

Normal view MARC view

Death by prison the emergence of life without parole and perpetual confinement Christopher Seeds.

By: Seeds, Christopher, 1967-Material type: TextTextPublisher: Oakland, California University of California Press, [2022]Description: 1 online resource (248 pages) illustrations, mapISBN: 0520977025; 9780520977020Subject(s): United States | Life imprisonment -- United States -- History | Réclusion à perpétuité -- États-Unis -- Histoire | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Criminology | LAW / Criminal Procedure | Life imprisonmentGenre/Form: EBSCO eBooks Additional physical formats: Print version:: Death by prisonDDC classification: 365/.60973 LOC classification: HV8711 | .S44 2022Other classification: SOC004000 | LAW027000 Online resources: Click here to access online
Contents:
Introduction -- Perpetual penal confinement -- Precursor and prototype -- The phenomenon to be explained -- The complex role of death penalty abolition -- The collapse of a penal paradigm -- Governors and prisoners -- The US Supreme Court's ambivalent crafting of LWOP -- Abolition and the alternative -- Life prisoners lifetime prisons -- Conclusion.
Summary: "In recent decades, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (LWOP) has developed into a distinctive penal form in the United States, one firmly entrenched in US policy-making, judicial and prosecutorial decision-making, correctional practice, and public discourse. LWOP is now a routine part of contemporary US criminal justice, even engrained in the nation's cultural imaginary, but how it came to be so remains in question. Fifty years ago, imprisoning a person until death was an extraordinary sentence; today, it accounts for an increasing percentage of all US prisoners. What explains the shifts in penal practice and the social imagination by which we have become accustomed to imprisoning individuals until death without any reevaluation or reasonable expectation of release? Combining a wide historical lens with detailed state- and institutional-level research, Death by Prison offers a provocative new foundation for questioning this deeply problematic practice that has escaped close scrutiny for too long. The rise of life without parole, this book demonstrates, is not simply a matter of growth: it is a phenomenon of change, inclusive of changes in definitions, practices, and meanings. Death by Prison shows that the complex processes by which life without parole became imprisonment until death and perpetual confinement became a routine part of American punishment must be understood not only in terms of punitive attitudes and political efforts but as a matter of background conditions and transformations in penal institutions. The book also reveals how the social and sociological relevance of life without parole extends beyond its punitive element: imbued in the history of life without parole are a variety of forms of disregard--for human dignity, for social consequences, and for the myriad responsibilities that go along with state punishment"-- Provided by publisher.
Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.
No physical items for this record

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Perpetual penal confinement -- Precursor and prototype -- The phenomenon to be explained -- The complex role of death penalty abolition -- The collapse of a penal paradigm -- Governors and prisoners -- The US Supreme Court's ambivalent crafting of LWOP -- Abolition and the alternative -- Life prisoners lifetime prisons -- Conclusion.

"In recent decades, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (LWOP) has developed into a distinctive penal form in the United States, one firmly entrenched in US policy-making, judicial and prosecutorial decision-making, correctional practice, and public discourse. LWOP is now a routine part of contemporary US criminal justice, even engrained in the nation's cultural imaginary, but how it came to be so remains in question. Fifty years ago, imprisoning a person until death was an extraordinary sentence; today, it accounts for an increasing percentage of all US prisoners. What explains the shifts in penal practice and the social imagination by which we have become accustomed to imprisoning individuals until death without any reevaluation or reasonable expectation of release? Combining a wide historical lens with detailed state- and institutional-level research, Death by Prison offers a provocative new foundation for questioning this deeply problematic practice that has escaped close scrutiny for too long. The rise of life without parole, this book demonstrates, is not simply a matter of growth: it is a phenomenon of change, inclusive of changes in definitions, practices, and meanings. Death by Prison shows that the complex processes by which life without parole became imprisonment until death and perpetual confinement became a routine part of American punishment must be understood not only in terms of punitive attitudes and political efforts but as a matter of background conditions and transformations in penal institutions. The book also reveals how the social and sociological relevance of life without parole extends beyond its punitive element: imbued in the history of life without parole are a variety of forms of disregard--for human dignity, for social consequences, and for the myriad responsibilities that go along with state punishment"-- Provided by publisher.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on June 29, 2022).

There are no comments on this title.

to post a comment.
Share