Vermont Should Give a Second Look at Extreme Sentences - Life Sentences in Vermont Age, Gender, Race, and Time Served

People who have committed Vermont’s Department of Corrections reports a total crime, even violent crime, have relatively short criminal of 174 people, or 20% of the state prison population careers and tend to commit crime in their youth and (851 sentenced individuals3), serving sentences of life young adulthood.2 Excessively long sentences that carry with parole (151), life without parole (14), or. [...] Vermont has more Legislative proposals that follow the science with regard people serving life sentences today than its entire pris- to criminal sentences secure a functional corrections on population in 1970, just before the start of the mass system that is responsive to community needs for both incarceration era.5 accountability and crime control. [...] The financial people serving life sentences in Vermont are over 50.7 and societal costs of heavy reliance on life sentences far outweighs its hoped-for benefits.8 Instead, a wide body Many individuals serving extreme sentences in Vermont of research has concluded that the deterrent effect from have already served at least two decades in prison; the crime is more a function of certainty of punishme. [...] Ending life and other long sentences would position Growth of Life Sentences in Vermont Vermont as a national leader in addressing structural The expansion of life sentences in Vermont echoes a racism and mass incarceration. [...] Notably, the pace of growth of life sentences with parole (LWP) Vermont is among several jurisdictions, including Mas- has been swifter in Vermont than in nearby states and sachusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan, New York, and the national average.