Friends,
I’m pleased to pass along this Washington Post commentary, Reduce Prison Populations by Reducing Life Sentences. The piece is by Daniel Nagin, one of the country’s leading criminologists, at Carnegie-Mellon University. Dr. Nagin speaks about the book that Ashley Nellis and I have co-authored, The Meaning of Life: The Case for Abolishing Life Sentences, and argues that we “have made a bold recommendation for unraveling mass incarceration” and that “There is no good reason for believing that life sentences are a better deterrent than the Mauer-Nellis recommendation of a maximum sentence of 20 years.”
We’re pleased to see this thoughtful consideration of our proposal, and hope that you find it useful.