Roughly 230,000 prisoners, the population size of Orlando, Florida, are serving life sentences within U.S. prisons. Writing for the Associated Press, Michael Virtanen reports on the debate taking place regarding older prisoners and whether they should be released from prison due to overcrowding.
Virtanen writes about Yohannes Johnson, a prisoner serving 75 years to life and hoping to get out from behind the prison walls. Speaking about having hope in the midst of such a long prison sentence, Johnson says:
One thing I don’t do is subject myself to the thought I’ll never leave prison…I can’t afford to do that. I do that, I lose hope. I lose hope then I don’t care about anything. I don’t care about anything then I become a detriment to myself and those around me.
Virtanen asks the right questions in his article, saying, “What kind of treatment programs should we be considering for the offenders who have a sentence of life without parole, or enter the system with sentences of 50 years to life?”
Prison Fellowship understands that there’s an over-reliance on incarceration as a means of punishing criminals. Visit our Sentencing Reform page for more information.