Death by Prison - by Christopher Seeds (Paperback)

About the Book

"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"--

Book Synopsis

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 practice, but how it came to be so remains in question. Fifty years ago, imprisonment of a person until death was an extraordinary punishment; today, it accounts for the sentences of an increasing number of prisoners in the United States. What explains the shifts in penal practice and social imagination by which we have become accustomed to imprisoning people until death without any reevaluation or 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.

From the Back Cover

"A masterful account of how a shockingly cruel punishment became a widespread practice in the United States. Anyone seeking to understand the origins, development, and tenacity of the carceral state must reckon with this compelling analysis of how life in prison without the possibility of parole became a routine punishment, part by design and part by disregard, thanks to a wide swath of lawyers, judges, policymakers, prison administrators, and interest groups."--Marie Gottschalk, author of Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics

"Death by Prison is the definitive account of life without parole - its history, its politics, its impact - and is sure to become a landmark in its field. This deep, disturbing book will be essential reading for anyone who cares about the humanity of penal practices or who struggles to understand how these life-cancelling sentences could somehow become routine."--David Garland, author of Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition

"The first comprehensive interdisciplinary study of America's quintessential form of excessive punishment. Seeds's careful research on the proliferation of this extreme punishment teaches a stunning lesson for law and society more generally in the 21st century: institutional disregard and acceptance play as much a role as positive motivations in the emergence of extreme legal means."--Jonathan Simon, author of Mass Incarceration on Trial

"Death by Prison methodically explores the development of life without parole as an acceptable social institution of punishment that paved the way for mass-incarceration, the largest-scale imprisonment of Black humanity in modern history. A must-read for criminal justice advocates seeking to end life sentences, as well as death penalty abolitionists inclined to view life without parole as more humane than the death penalty."--Jose Hamza Saldana, Director, Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP Campaign

"A groundbreaking analysis of the development and impact of life without parole sentences. Through a rigorous assessment of the historical and political roots of this policy, Seeds informs our understanding of the distinct role played by this form of punishment. We can see clearly how the current meaning of life without parole has both been an outgrowth of the emergence of mass incarceration and in turn has added a new dimension to the unique role of American imprisonment."--Marc Mauer, Senior Advisor and Former Executive Director, The Sentencing Project

"A finely crafted, deeply erudite account of how life without parole and perpetual confinement almost accidentally came to assume a central position in US penal practice at a time when it was being challenged on human rights grounds in other parts of the world. It ought to be required reading for anyone interested in how remarkably cruel punishments become accepted as routine."--Dirk van Zyl Smit and Catherine Appleton, authors of Life Imprisonment: A Global Human Rights Analysis

"Death by Prison is an ambitious overview of the rise of life sentences for American prisoners. As both an empirical and conceptual contribution, it's original and comprehensive."--Steven Herbert, author of Too Easy to Keep: Life-Sentenced Prisoners and the Future of Mass Incarceration

"Comprehensive, well-researched and beautifully written. Death By Prison's contribution to the literature on life without parole cannot be exaggerated."--Margaret E. Leigey, author of The Forgotten Men

Review Quotes

"Christopher Seeds' Death by Prison is a comprehensive and compelling origin story of a sentence that is a crime against human decency. . . . This book is essential reading for all students of crime and punishment."

-- "Social Forces"

"Seeds does a masterful job of busting the myth of how [life without parole] replaced the death penalty."-- "Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books"

About the Author

Christopher Seeds is Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine.