Pennsylvania has two death sentences. The obvious one torments the prisoner on death row for ten years and then kills him. The second death sentence is called life in prison. The prisoner dies from old age and despair. There's no parole, no clemency, no rehabilitation. Pennsylvania doesn't like its citizens. It doesn't believe in their rehabilitation. Most life sentences are for convictions of murder which is certainly a heinous crime. In Pennsylvania many persons get sentences equivalent to life, but "in numbers," as they say. Sentences of 60, 80 even 120 years are not uncommon. Those are death sentences. Pennsylvania is that kind of a place. At present there are over 4200 persons serving life sentences in Pennsylvania. Most are Afro-Americans. Over 6800 others are serving excessively long sentences (mostly blacks convicted of robbery or drug offenses). Each one of these prisoners cost the taxpayers in excess of $38,000 per year. They are without hope or prospects. Pennsylvania isn't interested in rehabilitation or helping people. Doing good is not in the state's political thinking. Persons serving life sentences have special problems, but they also give the prison system its stability. Generally, lifers are the "best" and most "normal" prisoners; trying to survive in the most hostile of environments. The following menu lists the articles we've published relating to lifers and life sentences. If you have your own stories about lifers, please email them to us for publication. Doing Life

Lifers Should Be Considered For Parole Revealing Lifers As The Really Are Pennsylvania Lifer Heroically Escaped Prison Isiah "Buttons" Givens: Philadelphia DA Railroaded An Innocent Man for Murder A Summary of Pennsylvania's Life Imprisonment Laws Death By Incarceration Letter About Women Lifers A Lingering Death By Inches Lying Cops Couldn't Keep a Black Lifer in Prison Putting Children in Prison for Their Entire Lives Death Stalks Pennsylvania's Prisons Punishing Lifers For Good Behavior Lifers' Union Advocacy Group Pennsylvania Lifers' Support The Lifers of Smithfield State Prison Help a Wrongly Convicted Lifer The Unusual Case of Tim Masters The Real First Murder Victim Calvin Williams Died Last Evening Doing Life Thanks to a "Public Pretender"