I happened to stumble onto this on the SF Gate site....at the bottom are some cool resources, and the article is very interesting.




EDITORIAL The longest wait
A second chance for 'lifers'


Friday, July 1, 2005

LOCK 'EM up and throw away the key.
That has been the ethos that has contributed to 27,251 inmates being incarcerated for "life" in California prisons -- a quarter of all inmates serving life terms across the United States.
Beginning today, California's Department of Corrections will undergo a dramatic shift in approach, at least on paper. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will change the name of the agency responsible for 163,939 inmates and 113,768 parolees to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The challenge will be to make sure this new approach extends to all prisoners -- including "lifers" who are eligible for parole and can make a convincing case that they have been rehabilitated.


For the full story please follow this link!


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...DG4NDGLGB1.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/01/EDG4NDGLGB1.DTL)

Thanks, Katie! Great article.

FYI for future postings, pto policy is to follow "fair use" practices -- only include a small excerpt from the story and the link, to avoid copyright infringement.

For more info: http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146017

Great article, thanks for sharing! :)

Thanks for that article. My life partner has spent 33yrs. of a life sentence, been turned down for parole, no matter how many people stood up for him. He has loads of "good time" accumulated.....but nothing has helped. He's in Cummins Unit,AR......but it was good to see another state having new thoughts on how this should or could be handled. Have a good night, bye for now, Molly55:)

Thank you for the info I do now have a little hope that I may be able to hold him in my arms one day.Thanks for that article. My life partner has spent 33yrs. of a life sentence, been turned down for parole, no matter how many people stood up for him. He has loads of "good time" accumulated.....but nothing has helped. He's in Cummins Unit,AR......but it was good to see another state having new thoughts on how this should or could be handled. Have a good night, bye for now, Molly55:)

I found this site today go and check it out it is about how lifers are sentenced in pa and how they have no chance of parole and these are true stories as well and what can be done to help http://www.prisoners.com/dsummary.html

No chance of parole in Indiana either. I have a friend who is serving 108 years there. He has done a degree along with numerous other classes, and has quite a few certificates, he has only had 3 minor write ups in almost 15 years (all none violent). He also works, and is a first class welder. In short a model prisoner, yet unless there is some kind of divine intervention, he will die in there. It is wrong, so, so wrong!

To bad that does not pertain to my husband and best friend they got life w/out. it would be nice if some one would re-evaluate life w/out sentances and give some a chance. alot that end up getting life w/out were young and stupid and ended up getting cought in a situation that they normally would not be in.
life (in general) sometimes bites big time and people do not look at the entire situation and just look at things at face value. our system is not based on correcting but punishing to the harshest and do not look back.
we can not continue to just punish and throw away the key on people. if that is the case then they need to take off the "R" on the CDCR because they are not Rehabilitating any one just making them worse than when they first went in.

jj,i have mentioned my friend chulo before....he got life too,a parole hearing scheduled ,true enough. he killed noone. he wounded someone one night he had too much to drink. he was 18. he got life with possiblity of parole because ,just because, he was in a gang . he was drinking that night to celebrate...he was leaving california and the gang...what an irony.he has dropped out of all gang activities while in prison. tried to be a good boy for few years. now he is mr hide, he blames society,his mother,the whole world...how one can't loose it when at the end of the tunel...wait,what end of the tunel...can't see any.sometimes parole means nothing at all, chances are it's denied the first time anyway....No chance of parole in Indiana either. I have a friend who is serving 108 years there. He has done a degree along with numerous other classes, and has quite a few certificates, he has only had 3 minor write ups in almost 15 years (all none violent). He also works, and is a first class welder. In short a model prisoner, yet unless there is some kind of divine intervention, he will die in there. It is wrong, so, so wrong!

Sadly this never happened, it was from 2006...