Well, that's one way to keep the unemployment rate down
Nearly 10% of U.S. Prisoners Are Serving Life Terms
A report released by the Sentencing Project on May 11, 2004 reveals that nearly 10% of state and federal inmates are serving life sentences, an increase of 83% since 1992. The report blames the increase on punitive laws adopted by Congress and the state legislatures in the 1980s and 1990s, and not to the crime rate, which actually fell 35% from 1992 to 2002. The report – entitled "The Meaning of 'Life': Long Prison Sentences in Context," can be found on the Sentencing Project's website at http://www.sentencingproject.org/pubs_10.cfm.
Higher incarceration rates and longer sentences have vastly increased the cost of prison systems at a time when states are struggling under record budget shortfalls, the report says. The Sentencing Project estimates the cost of incarcerating an inmate who serves a full life term at $1 million. According to Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project, "the very broad application of life sentences has blurred the distinction between what is a really serious crime deserving a life sentence and some crimes where there is less culpability."
