On September 15, 2022, dozens of organizations across the United States submitted a complaint to United Nations independent experts challenging the United States’ policy and practice of condemning people to death by incarceration (DBI), also known as life sentences. Over 40 people currently serving DBI submitted letters in support of the complaint.
Death by incarceration (DBI) refers to extreme sentencing practices, including life without parole, life with parole, “virtual life” sentences that exceed life expectancy, and other lengthy and indeterminate sentences.
To learn more visit the Death By Incarceration Is Torture website.
Drop LWOP representatives traveled to Geneva Switzerland …
Side event at the 139th Session of the human rights committee
news and updates
How the U.S. Turned Away From the Death Penalty and Toward ‘Death by Incarceration’
The number of people imprisoned for life continues to climb, even as the overall prison population declines.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump signed into law the Laken Riley Act, named for a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student killed by a migrant from Venezuela who had entered the U.S. illegally.
Read the full story from The Marshall Project here
A MATTER OF LIFE: THE SCOPE AND IMPACT OF LIFE AND LONG TERM IMPRISONMENT IN THE U. S.
This report represents The Sentencing Project’s sixth national census of people serving life sentences, which includes life with the possibility of parole; life without the possibility of parole; and virtual life sentences (sentences reaching 50 years or longer).
Read the full report from The Sentencing Project here
It’s Known as “Death by Incarceration.” These People Want to End It.
My life is either going to be a testimony or a warning,” said Derek Lee.
Lee was speaking on a video chat from behind the walls of SCI Smithfield in central Pennsylvania. Now 35 years old, Lee has been imprisoned since he was 29. If nothing changes, he will grow old and die in prison.
Read the full story from The Nation here
ADVOCACY AND LEGAL GROUPS URGE U.N. TO CALL FOR ABOLITION
OF LIFE SENTENCES IN U.S
September 15, 2022, New York ‒ A national coalition of advocacy and legal groups today submitted a
complaint to the United Nations saying the United States is committing torture and other gross human
rights violations by condemning people to “Death by Incarceration” (DBI).
Read the full Complaint here.
UN ‘Special Rapporteur on Racism’ Charges U.S. Death by Incarceration Prison Sentences Especially Hurt Black, Latino Criminalized by Domestic Violence
NEW YORK CITY, NY – The United Nations special rapporteur on racism this week released, according to the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP), a powerful statement charging the U.S. “makes it way too easy for people to receive death-by-incarceration prison sentences, especially Black and Latino people and women who are criminalized in the context of domestic violence.
Read the full story here.
UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CALLS FOR MORATORIUM ON LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE IN U.S.
November 3, 2023 –
The United Nations Human Rights Committee issued its conclusions and recommendations based on a review of U.S. compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Read the full story here.
DEATH BY INCARCERATION: ABOLITIONISTS AT UN CALL FOR END TO “THE OTHER DEATH PENALTY”
October 29, 2023 – Abolitionists at the United Nations call for the end to “The Other Death Penalty”.
Read the full story here.
GROUPS URGE U.N. TO CALL FOR ABOLITION OF DEATH BY INCARCERATION DURING HISTORIC U.S. VISIT
April 28, 2023 – Groups Urge U.N. to Call for Abolition of Death By Incarceration During Historic U.S. Visit.
Read about it here, and at The Center for Constitutional Rights.