Imprisonment



Imprisonment

Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime where the convicted person is to remain in prison for the rest of his or her life. Examples of crimes for which a person could receive this sentence include murder, high treason, severe or violent cases of drug or human trafficking, or aggravated cases of burglary or robbery resulting in death or great bodily harm.

This sentence does not exist in all countries. However, where life imprisonment is a possible sentence, there may also be formal mechanisms to request parole after a certain time of having been in prison. This means that a convict could be entitled to spend the rest of the sentence (i.e., until he or she dies) outside prison; this is usually conditional depending on past and future conduct, possibly with certain restrictions or obligations. In contrast to jurisdictions without life imprisonment, a convict after having served the given prison sentence is free upon release.

The length of time and the modalities surrounding parole vary greatly for each jurisdiction. In some places convicts are entitled to apply for parole relatively early, in others only after several decades. However, the time of legally being entitled to apply for parole does often not tell anything about the actual date of being granted parole. Article 110 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court stipulates that for the gravest forms of crimes (e.g., war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide), a prisoner ought to serve two thirds of a fixed sentence, or 25 years in the case of life imprisonment. After this period, the court shall then review the sentence to determine whether it should be reduced.

Like other areas of criminal law, sentences handed to minors may differ from those given to legal adults. A few countries worldwide allow for minors to be given lifetime sentences that have no provision for eventual release. Of these, only the United States has minors serving such sentences, according to an updated 2008 joint study by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. As of 2009, Human Rights Watch has calculated that there are 2,574[1] youth offenders serving life without parole in the United States.

In New Zealand, a life sentence is an indeterminate sentence given automatically for murder and treason, and is the maximum sentence for manslaughter. In reality it is unheard of for a prisoner to die of old age in prison, and most are paroled. The default non-parole period for murder is 10 years, though in cases of particular violence the starting point is 17 years. The sentencing judge may demand a longer non-parole period, and as of 2006 the longest non-parole period handed down was 33 years, in 2003 to William Dwane Bell. This was reduced to 30 years on appeal, which remains the longest non-parole period on record.

New Zealand also has an indefinite sentence of Preventive Detention, which is handed out for crimes other than treason or murder/manslaughter. Traditionally handed down to repeat sexual offenders, in 2002 the criteria were ...