56 The Economist July 10th 2021
International
LifesentencesRetrieving the key
L
ast augusta judge sentenced Brenton
Tarrant, who murdered 51 people at two
mosques in Christchurch, to life in prison
with no possibility of parole. It was the first
time a court in New Zealand had meted out
such a sentence. Jacinda Ardern, the prime
minister and a liberal icon, took grim satis
faction in the punishment. “Today I hope
is the last where we have any cause to hear
or utter the name of the terrorist,” she said.
Lifelong imprisonment seems to be
spreading as a punishment for the worst
crimes. In 2019 Serbia passed “Tijana’s law”
in response to the rape and murder of a 15
yearold girl. It allows judges to sentence
some murderers and rapists of children to
life in prison without parole. In June last
year, after the gang rape of a 13yearold girl
by soldiers, Colombia overturned its con
stitutional ban on life sentences. Britain’s
government recently proposed legislation
to reduce the age at which judges can im
pose “wholelife” sentences from 21 to 18.
The most heinous crimes are rare, but
the world’s population of lifers is large and
probably growing. According to the World
Prison List, the population of all inmatesrose by 20%, to 10.4m, from 2000 to 2015.
Meanwhile, between 2000 and 2014 the
numbers serving life sentences worldwide
rose by 84%, to 479,000, according to “Life
Imprisonment”, a recent book. America
held 40% of them (see chart on next page);
more than 80% of those have no prospect
of parole. The Sentencing Project, a think
tank in Washington, dc, reckons that the
number of Americans serving life sentenc
es without parole rose by twothirds, to
56,000, between 2003 and 2020. Turkey,
India and Britain impose a lot of life sen
tences. South African jails hold nearly
17,000 lifers, up from 500 in 1995. In 2014
some sort of formal life sentence was on
the books of 183 countries and territories.
Many penal reformers think that is ex
cessively harsh. Lifelong confinement is a
declaration by the state that a person is be
yond reform. It punishes long after most
violent offenders have lost the will or ca
pacity to repeat their offences. And in
some countries, such sentences are im
posed not only for murder and rape but al
so for lesser crimes.
Catherine Appleton, one of the authorsof “Life Imprisonment”, contrasts the pun
ishment of Mr Tarrant with Norway’s treat
ment of Anders Breivik, another fanatic,
who in 2011 murdered 77 people, most at a
summer camp for the Labour Party’s youth
wing. He drew Norway’s maximum prison
sentence of 21 years. After that, a court will
decide if he is still dangerous. If so, which
seems likely, he will remain locked up. But
if not, he will be freed.
Opponents of life without parole hope
to repeat the success of campaigners
against capital punishment. Since 1976
more than 70 countries have abolished the
death penalty. The number of executions
worldwide in 2020 fell for the fifth year
running to its lowest in a decade, says Am
nesty International, a humanrights
group. In America just 17 people were ex
ecuted last year. If campaigners have their
way, life sentences will be the next sort to
be branded cruel and rendered unusual.
Making this case is not simple. For one
thing, lifesentencing regimes vary enor
mously. Some are relatively lenient, as in
Finland, where few “lifers” spend more
than 15 years in prison. Others are stagger
ingly harsh. Some American states still
lock up juvenile offenders for life. China
imposes the sentence on corrupt officials.
Australia and Britain do so for drug offenc
es. Life with a chance of parole may not be
much better than without it if parole is
granted rarely. Life sentences can be dis
guised as indeterminate or very long fixed
term sentences. El Salvador, which does
not impose life sentences, can lock peopleB ATON ROUGE AND LILONGWE
As countries execute fewer criminals, they are locking more up for ever.
Campaigners are crying foul