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This chapter examines the development of the discretionary life sentences in England and Wales. It describes the evolution of life sentences for non-homicide offences and the criteria used by the courts, introduces the concept of the ‘tariff’, examines key decisions influencing release procedures and the impact of the European Court of Human Rights, and discusses the process of recall to prison for discretionary lifers.

This chapter compares the views of probation officers with the perceptions of lifers. It consider the lifer's view of how the probation service, as the main agency concerned with the support and supervision of life-sentenced offenders, contributed to the prospect of readjustment and resettlement after long-term imprisonment. It also provides an analysis of data from indepth interviews with discretionary life-sentenced offenders, who talked about their perceptions of the purpose, process, and outcomes of probation supervision, their experience of probation contact and its effectiveness, and their assessment of the contribution supervision and other factors made towards tackling problems following release.

This chapter provides a qualitative assessment of the subjective side of desistance from the perspective of a subgroup of discretionary life-sentenced offenders convicted of violent and sexual offences. It presents narratives from autobiographical accounts of twenty-eight discretionary lifers who had resettled in the community after long-term imprisonment. It also seeks to develop understanding of the role reform narratives and reformed identities play among those who have committed some of the most serious criminal acts.

This chapter discusses the process of prison recall for discretionary life-sentenced offenders. First, it describes the size of lifer prison population in England and Wales and highlights the increasing number of life sentence prisoners who have been recalled to prison after a period of life licence. It then describes the process of recall in practice for lifers, and depicts the release and recall status for the current cohort of discretionary life-sentenced offenders. Finally, it present lifers' ‘stories of recall’, integrating qualitative analysis of indepth interviews with those lifers in the sub-sample who were interviewed in prison.

New technological achievement in human reproduction are emerging at a dizzying speed, with very little or no opportunity for the public to debate their merits. The first and probably most anticipated is the embryonic life discourse. Abortion for cystic fibrosis, preimplantation genetic diagnosis for deafness, and human genetic engineering for cystic fibrosis are all for one group of persons acceptable because they improve the health of someone, be it through bringing a healthier person into the world or modifying an existing person to make them and their offspring healthier. On the other hand, the pro-lifers do not place the same issues in their health-related domain. They oppose abortion and preimplantation genetic diagnosis for cystic fibrosis, but they do approve of human genetic engineering for cystic fibrosis. Their “health” domain is better described as “medicine” and is limited to reproductive genetic technologies (RGTs) where currently existing people are modified to help the health of themselves and their offspring.

The first chapter discusses the background and recent trends in the application of life sentences. Over the last decades, the number of lifers nationwide has been rising dramatically. It has been well documented that this growth is linked to policy changes, not to increases in crime rates. The chapter outlines the reasons why we should pay attention to the population of life sentenced individuals: The absence of crime reduction through incarceration, the financial aspects of applying prolonged imprisonment, the adverse social and psychological effects of long-term incarceration and finally, recent developments in legislation that may result in more life-sentenced individuals being released. This book seeks to shed light on this understudied population. While doing so, it assesses what determines success (desistance, or staying out on parole) versus failure (going back to prison) post-release. The chapter provides an overview of the book’s structure in addressing this question.

This chapter addresses the effects of long-term incarceration on mental health. The long-term effects of exposure to powerful and traumatic situations, contexts, and structures mean that prisons themselves can bring about psychological problems resulting from prison trauma. Interviewed lifers described symptoms that were not limited to PTSD, but also included institutionalized personality traits (prisonization), social-sensory disorientation, and temporal alienation, or the idea of ‘not belonging’. Taken together, this cluster of mental health symptoms is described as the ‘Post-Incarceration Syndrome’, or PICS. Navigating the conditions of parole often clashed with their need for appropriate mental health counselling.

Chapter nine arrives at the question who was able to stay out of prison after re-entry, and who was not. It first discusses the strategies these lifers employed to navigate the conditions of parole. The interviewees mentioned several reasons in terms of ‘failing’ to stay out of prison: Being recalled for political reasons; catching up too quickly for lost time; falling back into old habits, and returning to prison as a safe place. The vast majority of re-incarcerated lifers returned to prison as a result of a technical violation, not a new criminal offense (criminal recidivism). What we should thus be questioning is not how these lifers are actively ‘going straight’ or desist, but rather, how they manage their parole conditions and similarly, how the parole system manages its parolees. The chapter further details how lifers experience their re-incarceration, with particular attention to older lifers.

Chapter ten delves deeper into the factors the interviewees mentioned as key to staying out. These included aging out of crime, a healthy fear for the conditions of parole, and self-efficacy, or having a sense of choice and control over one’s life. Non-incarcerated interviewees, as opposed to re-incarcerated individuals, reflected a strong sense of agency in their narrative. The process of desistance is thus not the result of societal forces, as emphasized by life-course theorists. Nor does it seem to be a resolution of an individual to change, as the vast majority of interviewees said that they underwent a transformation leading to a better version of themselves. What seems to be crucial for lifers in being successful in staying out on parole is a combination of social support structures, having regained a sense of control, and a strong awareness of the restraints that govern their day-to-day life.

Chapter eleven concludes by exploring the boundaries of two main theoretical models: Life-course theories and theories of cognitive transformation, in explaining success and failure among these lifers. The majority of the interviewed lifers, in a strict sense, desisted from crime, but still experienced great difficulty adjusting to life outside of prison. The chapter discusses ways in which the findings can be put into practical and policy recommendations, to better prepare this unique group of offenders for release to the community: By reclaiming self-efficacy in prison and through employment, by evidence-based programming, and by acknowledging the psychological aftermath of long-term incarceration. The chapter concludes with a discussion on reform in both prison and parole systems for lifers. Providing lifers a fair chance on the job market, adequate programming taking into account the prolonged period of confinement, and a sense of certainty in terms of reasons for recall enables them to start a life beyond bars.