An estimated half a million people are serving a formal life sentence (based on data published in 2019).
The most recent worldwide data on life imprisonment, published in 2019, estimated that in 2014 there were 479,000 people serving a formal life sentence. However, this excludes informal life sentences – where the sentence imposed may not be called life imprisonment but may result in the person being detained in prison for life. Furthermore, data available at the national level point to an upward trend in the number of life sentences imposed and also increased punitiveness in their length, conditions and the types of offences that can attract a life sentence.
Between 2014 and 2020, the number of people serving life sentences increased by 28% in South Africa, 50% in Thailand, 33% in Poland and 17% in Canada. A few other countries saw a decrease in the same time span, such as in Finland (by 15%) and in Japan and Argentina, although the decrease was relatively small at under 5%. There is also a decline of life imprisonment sentences imposed on children (see Children).
Increased punitiveness in the imposition of life sentences – often in a context of general ‘tough on crime’ policies – have been seen in countries across the globe. In Ireland, where more than 1 in 10 people in prison is serving life, the minimum term before parole can be considered has been increased from 7 to 12 years. In New Zealand, the first ever sentence of life without the possibility of parole was handed down in 2020, which was followed in 2021 by another case where a life sentence, with a minimum non-parole period of 27 years, represented one of the longest sentences of the country. Data released on the US by the Sentencing Project in 2021 showed an increase of 43% in the number of women serving life without the possibility of parole since 2008 and detailed how one out of every 15 women in the country’s prisons is serving a life sentence, an increase of 19%.
Efforts to reform or repeal the use of life imprisonment over the past year have involved constitutional appeals in several countries. In Spain, an appeal to the Constitutional Court failed with a ruling in October 2021 that upheld the use of life imprisonment. The country’s reinstatement of life imprisonment in 2015 (after abolition in 1928) was challenged unsuccessfully by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ party with the 7 majority votes to 3 coming from the conservative bloc.
In Colombia, on the other hand, the Constitutional Court ruled in September 2021 that the recent introduction of life imprisonment (with a possibility of review after 25 years) for the crimes of rape and sexual abuse of children was unconstitutional. The Court found that life sentences are contrary to human dignity, threaten the guarantee of resocialisation of convicted persons and are a setback that risks dehumanising the penal system.
Other successful appeals to reform life sentences were seen in Italy and Ukraine. In the former, the Constitutional Court held, in April 2021, that the legal regime was unconstitutional for rendering individuals sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘mafia-related’ crimes ineligible for conditional release if they refused to collaborate with the judicial authorities. The decision followed a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) which found that requiring police cooperation as a condition for parole eligibility for people sentenced for mafia-related crimes was a violation of the prohibition against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment. A similar approach was taken in Ukraine, where the Constitutional Court held Ukraine’s system of life imprisonment without possibility of review or release to be unconstitutional in December 2021, following an ECtHR finding that the system violated the European Convention.
One driver for the increase in life sentences is the types of offences that attract them. The Global Drug Policy Index reports that life imprisonment can be imposed for drug-related offences in 14 of the 30 countries included in the Index. In 24 of the 30 countries, life sentences are not imposed in practice for drug use and possession for personal use, with the exception of Kenya, where the sentence is imposed ‘frequently’ (between 11 to 30% of cases). The Index reports that life sentences are imposed for drug supply offences ‘frequently’ (in 16 to 40% of cases) in Nepal and Thailand, and ‘very frequently’ (in 41 to 80% of cases) in Indonesia and Lebanon; in these four countries, life sentences are imposed without the possibility of parole.