What Is the Meaning of Life:

The Evolution of Natural Life Sentences in Louisiana, 1973-1994*

by Burk Foster

(March 1995)

This paper was presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences annual meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, March 9, 1995. It grew from a discussion I had with C. Paul Phelps, former Secretary of Public Safety and Corrections, at the Angola rodeo in October 1991. It was to have been jointly written, which became impossible with his untimely death in March 1993.

When philosophy professors ask, "What is the meaning of life," they are usually trying to get their students to reflect deeply on the nature and purpose of human existence. When corrections officials ask, "What is the meaning of life," they usually have pencils and calculators in hand, seeking a practical answer in finite temporal units--ten years, fifteen years, twenty years, some minimum time period after which a life-sentenced criminal offender becomes eligible for release consideration.

Philosophy professors are probably most happy if their question generates many answers--existential argument is enhanced by contradictory, wide-ranging responses. Corrections officials are probably less than thrilled when their question generates the same multiplicity of answers, and when those answers vary widely not only from jurisdiction-to-jurisdiction but also from time-to-time within the same jurisdiction. They would much prefer the simple, enduring answer that the philosophy professors would abhor.

The best recent guide to the many-forked path among life sentences in America is the January 1993 issue of Corrections COMPENDIUM. Referring to their survey conducted September 30, 1992, Su Perk Davis reports that 8.2% of the American prison population is serving life sentences. The results of this survey are summarized in my Table 1, which combines several tables from the January 1993 Corrections COMPENDIUM into one. It compares with a similar table, lacking statistical detail, prepared by the Pennsylvania Prison Society for their article, "The Need for Parole Options for Life-Sentenced Prisoners" (see "Parole for Lifers," The Angolite, November/December 1994, pp. 14-21); it also compares with Table 6.63, "Prison inmates serving life sentences," in the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1993.

Table 1 summarizes information on life sentences by states, listing each state, its prison population, numbers of men and women lifers, whether it has a no-parole life sentence, and if so, the numbers of men and women serving no-parole life.

According to the state reports in the survey, in 1992 a total of 65,281 men and 2,482 women were serving life sentences, more than 44,000 for first or second degree murder and another 20,500 for other offenses--kidnaping, drug offenses, sexual assault, robbery or habitual offender.

The number of lifers continues to increase, of course, as the prison population grows. In 1974, in a prison population of 187,500, there were 21,900 lifers, or about 12% of the total. Twenty years later, as the prison population surpassed one million, the number of lifers approaches 82,000, if the percentages from Su Perk Davis's article hold. So on the whole, one can argue that life sentences are being imposed less frequently now than they were 20 years ago.

On the other hand, the trend that is in many respects more ominous for those who project the consequences of long-term imprisonment is toward a dramatic increase in the number of lifers serving no-parole sentences. Thirty-three states, the District of Columbia and the Federal Bureau of Prisons have a specific sentence of "life without parole" or a statutory provision of parole ineligibility for certain offenses, as of 1992.

___________________

*I would like to thank Sylvia Stephens of the Office of Information Service, Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, for her help in retrieving and sorting out the Louisiana statistics used in this research.

Table 1

Life Sentences in the States, 1992

Prison Number of Lifers Life w/o No-Parole Lifers

State Population Male Female Parole Male Female

Alabama 17,221 2,548 58 Yes 685 11

Alaska No response -- -- Yes NA NA

Arizona 16,021 739 24 Yes 196 11

Arkansas 8,165 467 27 No

California 108,183 11,275 492 Yes 995 42

Colorado 8,961 500 12 Yes 22 1

Connecticut 11,086 149 3 Yes NA NA

Delaware 4,027 397 6 Yes 95 5

D.C. 11,122 774 10 Yes 10 0

Florida 47,619 4,767 145 Yes 2,332 44

Georgia 24,829 3,236 145 No

Hawaii 1,473 3 0 Yes 28 3

Idaho 2,265 189 6 Yes 174 6

Illinois 31,018 551 14 Yes 532 14

Indiana No response No

Iowa 4,512 374 17 Yes 374 17

Kansas 6,139 488 19 No

Kentucky 10,362 562 24 No* 8

Louisiana 21,165 2,158 72 Yes 2,083 71

Maine 1,574 44 0 Yes 11 0

Maryland No response Yes ? ?

Massachusetts 9,409 925 24 Yes 389 10

Michigan 38,513 3,086 107 Yes 1,729 66

Minnesota 3,582 153 7 Yes 1 0

Mississippi 9,058 49 0 Yes 151 0

Missouri 16,051 1,166 52 Yes 318 24

Montana 1,300 27 0 Yes 8 0

Nebraska 2,639 79 5 No

Nevada 6,191 903 31 Yes 214 9

New Hampshire 1,850 26 2 Yes 26 2

New Jersey 22,047 890 20 No

New Mexico 3,325 156 9 No

New York 61,373 9,033 444 Yes 10 0

South Carolina 8,697 1,290 67 No

South Dakota 1,498 99 3 No

North Carolina 19,868 2,171 66 No

North Dakota 561 12 1 No

Ohio 37,131 2,935 143 No

Oklahoma 14,780 929 62 Yes 87 8

Oregon 6,480 439 23 Yes 17 2

Pennsylvania 24,670 2,324 93 Yes ? ?

Rhode Island 2,858 83 Yes 99 3

Tennessee 14,500 1,246 44 No

Texas 51,887 4,152 85 No

Utah 2,691 41 0 Yes ? ?

Vermont 1,206 14 0 Yes ? ?

Virginia 16,939 1,248 25 No

Washington 10,039 588 20 Yes 125 7

West Virginia 1,808 254 6 Yes 124 1

Wisconsin 7,825 498 25 No

Wyoming 1,075 108 3 Yes 0 0

Federal BOP 81,822 1,177 41 Yes ? ?

*Abolished life without parole in 1975.

Source: Corrections COMPENDIUM, January 1993.

Twenty-five years ago there were perhaps a handful of true no-parole life sentences (and Kentucky, one of few states with no-parole life in the early 1970s, abolished the sentence in 1975). Now more than 10,000 men and women know the reality of true natural-life sentences. Their numbers remain small for now. Only California, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania have more than a thousand no-parole lifers in their state prisons at present. But the prospects for increasing their numbers appear good in many states.

As America continues its search for new ways to get tougher on criminals, no-parole life sentences have an undeniable appeal. Remember "three strikes and you're out?" The habitual felons sentenced under these statutes are parole ineligible. Their numbers are just beginning to show up in current prison population statistics. And it takes very little imagination (no more than most state legislatures display, at any rate) to convert more of the 75,000+ life with parole sentences to life without parole.

Of all the states that have jumped on the life without parole bandwagon, Louisiana has ridden it most enthusiastically for the longest time. No-parole life sentences took effect in Louisiana in 1973; over the next 20 years, through September 30, 1992, Louisiana accumulated 2,230 lifers, over 90% of whom were no-parole natural lifers. The only parole-eligible lifers in Louisiana at present are a group of fewer than 200 second-degree murders who entered the system between 1973 and 1979 (The number reflects updated statistics prepared by Corrections Services after the Corrections COMPENDIUM 1992 survey). All other lifers in Louisiana are serving natural life: 2,154 according to Corrections COMPENDIUM's 1992 survey, right at 2,400 according to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections's year-end 1994 figures. What is most striking about this number of no-parole lifers is how methodically it has come about, and how quickly and deliberately the policy effecting it was accomplished.

Before 1973 in Louisiana, there was no such thing as a natural life sentence. The best legal history of life sentences in Louisiana up to 1979 is Ron Wikberg's "A Graphic & Illustrative History, 1879 to 1979, Life Sentences in Louisiana." Written long before Wikberg became associate editor of The Angolite and published author, this unpublished mimeographed pamphlet bears the imprint of the Lifers' Association of the Louisiana State Penitentiary. In 15 pages Wikberg outlines the legislative and judicial history of life sentences in Louisiana.

Wikberg's fundamental observation is that for most of the 100 years a life sentence meant much less than life. In the 1890s, the penitentiary's Board of Control, the Pardon Board and the Governor were authorized to release a lifer after 15 years. In 1902, this fifteen-year period was reiterated. In 1914, the legislature adopted a new parole provision under which life-termers became parole eligible after serving one-third of this fifteen year period, or five years. In 1916, the Board of Control was abolished and the Board of Parole created, with the same authority to parole lifers after a minimum of five years in prison.

In 1926, the legislature established the procedure that would prevail for almost half a century:

That whenever a prisoner who has been convicted of a crime and sentenced to imprisonment for life, so conducts himself as to merit the approval of the General Manager of the State Penitentiary, he may apply for commutation of his sentence and upon the approval of the said General Manager, the same shall be forwarded to the Board of Pardons, and upon their approval, the same shall be forwarded to the Governor; provided, that no commutation under the provisions of this section shall reduce the term of service (to) less than 10 years and six months.

This was the "10-6" rule, so-called in that it established the normal length of a life sentence as ten-and-a-half years. Both statute and case law for the next half century make reference to the general expectation that a convict on good behavior would serve ten years and six months; he could then expect a favorable recommendation from the head of the penitentiary--the General Manager became the Superintendent and later the Warden--which would be forwarded along to the Pardon Board and the Governor for approval, leading to the convict's outright discharge from prison. He would have used up his life sentence.

In the 1970s this procedure was done away with. Wikberg maintains in his research that the 10-6 rule was not officially repealed until July 13, 1979, when Act 490 of the 1979 legislature abolished the recommendation process. It is clear from the record, however, that the 10-6 rule died in practice several years earlier. By 1973 the Warden of the penitentiary stopped making recommendations to the Pardon Board; without this starting impetus, the release process ceased. The men who had come into the prison system serving life sentences when the 10-6 rule was in effect came to be known as the "forgotten men" (one of several occasions this term has been applied to a group of Louisiana convicts): "forgotten" because the rule change had been applied to them retroactively. When they applied for release from prison on the grounds that the release procedure in effect when they entered prison ought still to apply to them, they were told that this was an administrative process and not a legal requirement: if the Warden quit making recommendations for the release of lifers after ten-and-a-half years in prison, the courts could not require him to start again, nor could they release any of the forgotten men who had served longer than ten-and-a-half years.

The only route open to the forgotten men was the traditional commutation process. According to statutes enacted in 1914 and 1916 and filled-in with more detail later, a lifer could petition the Pardon Board for a reduction of his life sentence to a fixed term of years. If this petition were granted and then approved by the Governor, the term would be commuted (what the convicts still call a "time cut") and parole eligibility would occur after one-third of the term. In this way, a pre-1970s convict might get a life sentence reduced to 15 years, become parole eligible after five, or reach his good-time release date in a little over eight years, if he did not make parole.

Many convicts did try this route successfully, in an era when it was much easier to obtain a pardon than it is today. Plenty of lifers were released on parole or good-time long before they ever reached their 10-6 release date. The old-time convicts say only the nobodies, which in Louisiana translates into those without political pull, stayed for ten-and-a-years; the advantaged went home early.

Lifers today still follow the same century-old steps--Pardon Board for a time cut, Governor's signature, then to the Parole Board after one-third--but their chances of success are much reduced, and when they do successfully run the political gauntlet, their fixed terms are more likely to be in the 60- to 90-year range, meaning they must serve at least 20 to 30 years before becoming parole eligible. This process turns young men into old men.

In the 1970s, while the Department of Corrections was finding clever ways not to release the old 10-6 lifers from the penitentiary, the Louisiana legislature was finding new ways of insuring that these men would have plenty of company growing old.

Act 111 of the 1973 legislature provided that second-degree murderers would not be eligible for parole for 20 years. Two years later, Act 380 of the 1975 legislature raised this minimum period to 40 years. Act 74 of the 1979 legislature went all the way: it made second-degree murder punishable by a natural life sentence. A later Louisiana Supreme Court decision did the same thing for the 20-year and 40-year lifers; it invalidated their parole eligibility and made them natural lifers as well.

It took the Louisiana legislature most of the decade to get its penalties straight for first-degree murder and aggravated rape. In the aftermath of Furman v. Georgia, Louisiana had first tried to make the death penalty mandatory for first-degree murder, and had continued to allow the death penalty for rape. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down mandatory death penalty laws and then said in Coker v. Georgia there could be no death penalty for a rape in which the victim did not die, the legislature reluctantly rewrote its statutes in conformity with the court's rulings (in Act 657 of 1976 and Act 239 of 1978). First-degree murder was left with penalties of death or natural life, and aggravated rape was left with natural life only.

The legislature also set natural life sentences for three other crimes; for aggravated kidnapping and distribution of Schedule I narcotics, natural life was mandatory, for third and fourth felony convictions, natural life was either mandatory or optional, depending on exactly what crimes the prior convictions were for.

Thus within less than a decade Louisiana went from turning all lifers loose in ten-and-a-half years or less to keeping virtually all of them in prison for their natural lives. The amazing aspect of this change, according to Paul Phelps, who was Secretary of Corrections in Louisiana during most of the 1970s and again in the 1980s, after a political break, was how directly it was done, and without controversy or substantial disagreement. Phelps said that it was all "black-and-white;" the legislature decided natural life sentences were a simple, straightforward solution to the problem of violent crime. There was no transition or period of legal evolution; one day the law was this way, the next day it was vastly different.

Phelps was also fond of pointing out that these changes were made during a time when Louisiana was oil rich. Phelps would blame oil money for supporting the "lock 'em up" mindset that developed in his state in the 1970s. He often said, before his death at age 60 from a heart attack on March 10, 1993, that the money could not have come at a worse time, because it discouraged shorter sentences and non-institutional alternatives.

Revenues from oil and gas production enabled Louisiana to embark on a vigorous campaign of prison building from 1976 on, to hold more lifers and more non-lifers as well (which by the early 1980s would start Louisiana's 15-year run as one of the top three states in per capita imprisonment rates). Louisiana could afford to lock lifers up for life; for a time in the 70s when new mandatory sentencing bills were introduced in every legislative session, its legislators seemed determined to lock up every violent felon, every drug dealer, everyone using a weapon to commit a crime, every repeat burglar, every repeat offender. For a time we didn't really notice how many lifers there were, because there were so many other convicted felons in state prisons and parish jails the numbers were almost overwhelming.

The Department of Corrections's operating budget increased from seven million dollars, for 4,000 inmates in 1971, to over $100 million for 8,000 prisoners in 1981. This spending did not include over $300 million appropriated between 1976 and 1980 for prison-related capital improvements--three new outcamps, new dormitories and other renovations at the Angola penitentiary, improvements in the state highway from St. Francisville to the penitentiary, two new medium security prison already opened and a third ready to open by the end of the year, expansion of two work training centers.

Paul Phelps was already suggesting in his speeches that the corrections department was in a "futile foot race with the judicial system," which with the legislature's new mandatory sentencing laws was sending 50 more people to prison each month than prisons were releasing. Phelps, speaking before a legislative committee in 1979, said, "If the state of Louisiana does not change its policies, we are firmly dedicated to building a new prison every other year. Our policy right now is to put everybody in prison."

State Senator Foster Campbell Jr. of Bossier City agreed, saying, "Pretty soon prisons will be more expensive than schools in this state." But when Phelps proposed expanded use of probation as an alternative to imprisonment, Campbell said he did not believe voters were ready to broaden probation programs. "I don't think the people of Louisiana are willing to lessen penalties," he said.

Sen. Campbell's observation remains as valid in 1995 as it was in 1979. The state of Louisiana has still not lessened any of the natural life sentences adopted during the "punishment decade" of the 1970s. The percentage of lifers in the state prison population has not changed dramatically over the 20-year period, remaining at a fairly constant level of between 11% and 12%. Table 2 shows the increase in the number of lifers in Louisiana's prisons.

Table 2

Life-Sentenced Inmates in Louisiana Prisons

Number of Increase from

Year Natural Lifers Previous Year

1970 143 28

1971 164 21

1972 193 29

1973 257 64

1974 323 66

1975 382 59

1976 454 72

1977 528 74

1978 601 73

1979 699 98

1980 802 103

1981 935 133

1982 1,084 149

1983 1,219 135

1984 1,330 111

1985 1,445 115

1986 1,573 128

1987 1,698 125

1988 1,807 109

1989 1,933 126

1990 2,039 106

1991 2,155 116

1992 2,280 125

1993 2,439 159

1994 2,592 153

Source: Office of Information Services, Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

We can see from this table how steadily the number of lifers has increased. Before the mid-1970s, the Louisiana prison system never accumulated more than a couple of hundred lifers at any given time; the outgo--from the 10-6 rule, parole and good-time--and the influx of new inmates were roughly in balance.

By the late 70s, the balance had been destroyed: lifers were still coming in, but they weren't leaving. They were no longer eligible for parole, and the commutation process slowed to a virtual trickle.

Out of over 600 first-degree murderers sentenced to death or life imprisonment since the new statute was adopted in 1973, only 11--nine men and two women--have received a commutation of sentence, and only eight of these have been released from prison. So 98% of the first-degree murderers who are still alive are still serving the no-parole natural life sentences they came in with, and the percentage of natural lifers for other offenses--second-degree murder, aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, distribution of narcotics and habitual felons--remains nearly as high.

Table 3 lists the number of natural lifers incarcerated for the six life imprisonment offenses in Louisiana. Of the total 2,595 lifers in the system as of March 1, 1995, 181 entered prior to the change of practice and law in 1973--the end of the 10-6 era. The balance, 2,414, have entered the system since.

Table 3

Louisiana Lifers by Offense

Offense Committed Offense Committed

Prior to 1973 1973 to Present No Date Total

1st Degree Murder 75 575 4 654

2nd Degree Murder 33* 1,073** 92 1,198

Agg. Rape 69 513 0 582

Agg. Kidnaping 4 54 0 58

Dist. Sch. I Narc. 0 101 0 101

Habitual Offenders 0 2 0 2

*Second degree murder was created as an offense in 1973. These are re-sentencings, re-convictions or data entry errors.

**Includes 193 lifers who were intended to be 20-year or 40-year parole eligible by statute; later invalidated by Louisiana Supreme Court action.

Source: Office of Information Services, Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, March 1, 1995.

Louisiana's lifers still go through the clemency application process. "What else is there to do?" they might ask. But the hard truth is that clemency is no longer an avenue open to the masses. It has become very individual and selective, with over 90% of lifers either being denied by the Pardon Board, rejected by the Governor, or never even bothering to apply for clemency in the first place. Their numbers increase by more than 100 each year now, and the most common way for them to leave prison now is death.

The rate of increase in the number of lifers has tended to keep pace with the increased number of new admissions, as indicated earlier. 1980 was the first year in which the increase went above 100, and the increase continued at this pace through the rest of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, as shown in Table 2. It is interesting to note that by 1993 and 1994, the annual increase had jumped to 159 and 153, indicating, if anything, a renewed commitment by the system to putting lifers away. Only Florida and Pennsylvania today reportedly have a slightly larger number of natural lifers than Louisiana's total of 2,400.

You can tour the Louisiana corrections system today, looking at the 16,500 men and women in state prisons and the 7,000 additional state inmates serving their sentences in parish jails, and not be struck with how many lifers there are--until you visit the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. The oldest, the largest, the most remote and the most secure of Louisiana's prisons, Angola has become the repository for the largest number of Louisiana's lifers. Table 4 indicates where life inmates are housed.

Table 4

Louisiana Lifers: Place of Confinement

Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola) 2,275

Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women 66

Other State Prisons for Men 130

Parish Jails (State Inmates) 53

State Police Barracks (Trusties) 35

Adult Services/Other 36

Source: Office of Information Services, Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, March 1, 1995.

About 88% of Louisiana's life-term inmates are confined at Angola; almost half of the prison's 4,600 inmates are lifers, and half of the rest are what Louisiana calls "practical lifers," whose fixed terms for armed robbery, forcible rape and other crimes extend beyond their normal life expectancy.

Becoming a "lifers' prison" has had a big impact on Angola. The average age of the inmate population in 1990 was 36, and by 1994 it had climbed to 37, which is probably the oldest of any large, general purpose prison in the United States. As of March 15, 1994, Angola held only 34 prisoners under age 20, but 2,429 age 35 or older. Douglas Dennis, in his article "The Living Dead" in the September/October 1994 Angolite, points out that Louisiana held 344 inmates confined 20 years or longer, of a total prison population of 23,502. The great majority of these long-term inmates are serving their time at Angola.

What lies ahead for these men? As long as 20 years ago, Paul Phelps and other corrections officials were predicting that Angola would eventually become the nation's largest "old folks home," as more and more lifers came there to live the rest of their natural lives in this most unnatural place.

The Pennsylvania Prison Society discusses the problems of aging offenders in its recent report, "The Need for Parole Options for Life-Sentenced Prisoners." The report points out, among other concerns, the high cost of medical care for older inmates--estimated at two to three times that of younger inmates--greater vulnerability to injury, the increased likelihood of victimization by predatory younger inmates, and resources wasted guarding older inmates who are no longer a real threat to society.

Richard Stalder, the current Secretary of Public Safety and Corrections in Louisiana, has appealed to the state legislature the past two sessions for more authority to turn older lifers loose, so that he can make more room in his prisons for more active younger criminals. So far the legislature has not granted his request. Legislators have directed Stalder to proceed with plans to open a geriatric satellite prison in North Louisiana, at the site of the old Caddo Parish Prison. When the natural lifers said they didn't want to die at Angola, being sent to Shreveport to die instead was not the alternative they had in mind.

"What is the meaning of life?" Inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary are not philosophy professors, but they probably yearn for the same variety of responses the professors hope for. After 20 years of living with the reality of "life means life," any variation on the theme would have to be cause for hope.

It probably gives no sense of satisfaction to Louisiana's lifers to know that their numbers are being supplemented by thousands more no-parole lifers in many other states. Most of them would cheerfully trade their place on the cutting edge of punishment for a realistic chance to go home, even after 20 or 25 or 30 years in prison, while they still have a few good years left.

It is a puzzle to them that after so many, many years in prison, growing gray and tired, and in some cases wise and benevolent as well, they are likely never to get the chance to show the free world what they have learned, or how they have changed. From the point of view of Louisiana's lifers, if the question is, "What is the true meaning of our lives, to the outside world," the answer, quick in coming, is, "Nil."

References

Davis, Su Perk. 1993. "8.2% Serving Life Sentences." Corrections COMPENDIUM, January: 5-ll.

Dennis, Douglas. 1994. "The Living Dead." The Angolite, September/October: 20-57.

Dennis, Douglas. 1994. "Ages." The Angolite, March/April: 22-27.

Dennis, Douglas. 1994. "Parole for Lifers." The Angolite, November/December: 14-21.

Foster, Burk. 1988. "Prison Overcrowding: The Louisiana Response." The Angolite, March/April: 19-40.

Wikberg, Ron. 1979. "A Graphic and Illustrative History, 1879 to 1979, Life Sentences in Louisiana." Mimeographed.