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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
More than 40% of the prisoners at Lakeland Correctional Facility are lifers. But not every life sentence is the same.
We've reported a lot on the lifers who were sentenced for crimes they committed before they were 18. Some of those lifers have a new sense of hope after the Supreme1 Court decided2 that sentencing juveniles3 to life without the possibility of parole is unconstitutional.
But there's another group of people convicted as juveniles who aren't affected4 by that decision.
These are people who got a life sentence with the possibility of parole. Their situation is, in some ways, more complicated.
The Michigan Department of Corrections says there are more than 800 parolable lifers in Michigan prisons who are eligible5 for parole consideration. The organization Safe & Just Michigan estimates more than 60 of them were sentenced as juveniles.
More from Life on the Inside
One of those people is Raymond Richardson. He's an inmate6 at Lakeland. He was sentenced for a crime he committed when he was 15 years old - in 1984.
They say I got a possible chance for parole, but at what point do I get my possible chance? he says. And I don't see where I'm ever getting out. The parole board people: ‘We don't want to talk to you.' Why?
As it stands now, prisoners with a parolable life sentence become eligible for parole after 15 years. The parole board will hold a hearing. Usually, that doesn't end in parole. After that, the board considers the case every five years. But they don't have to hold a hearing, or even talk to the prisoner. They can just review the file.
Richardson's file has some bad stuff in it. He was convicted for a robbery in which he held people hostage, sexually assaulted a woman, and shot someone, according to a Detroit Free Press article from the time.
But he was 15 then. He's spent more than twice as long as that in prison.
Richardson says he has a job in prison. He takes self-improvement classes. He has his GED.
I'm doing everything that I can possibly do to show that I've grown and matured and taken steps to rehabilitate7 myself, he says. And I'm constantly being told, ‘No. Five years. We'll see you in five years.'
The standard file review, he says, doesn't give him a chance to show who he really is today. It doesn't give him a meaningful chance at parole, as he puts it.
Back in the day, when a lot of these sentences were being imposed, you know there was an expectation on the part of judges that people might not get out in ten, but they'd get out in 12 or 14 years, says Barbara Levine who was the head of an organization now known as Safe & Just Michigan.
She's written reports on the issue of parolable lifers. The most recent was in 2014.
For the report, she surveyed judges. She found two-thirds of them didn't agree with the idea that a life with parole meant that a prisoner would stay their whole life in prison.
But a lot of prosecutors9 see it that way.
I mean, it's always been the practice and the law that a person who receives a life sentence is eligible for parole consideration, says Bill Vailliencourt, the Livingston County prosecutor8, who also serves as president of the Prosecuting10 Attorneys Association of Michigan. But I think everyone has always understood that that means it's up to the parole board to make those determinations.
Vailliencourt says many prosecutors take the view that life means life in these cases.
In a statement, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office mostly sided with that view.
Generally we have taken the position that a defendant11 sentenced to life should only be released for extra-ordinary behavior on his part, or other factors such as the defendant was very young when he/she committed the offense12, the office said in a statement to Michigan Radio.
Prosecutors can't stop a prisoner from being paroled, but they can file an objection with the parole board.
Judges do have the power to veto the parole of a prisoner with a life sentence, but in 2016, a new law limited that power. The new law says only the judge who heard the original case can stop the parole. Any successor judge who takes over after that judge retires or dies can't stop the parole.
But the people with the most power to parole these lifers are parole board members.
Levine says in the past, the parole board members were very reluctant to release any lifers.
People should not assume that lifers are somehow more culpable13, that their offenses14 are any worse, she says. And they shouldn't assume from all the time that they've served that they're somehow at fault - that they must have been screwing up, otherwise the board would have released them.
Levine says her research shows lifers who do get paroled are much less likely to re-offend. Many of them are much older when they get out, and not likely to return to crime. And, she notes, as they grow older in prison, their incarceration15 costs the state more.
Safe & Just Michigan has been tracking the number of lifers who are granted parole each year. In recent years, those numbers have been going up. More parolable lifers are getting out. But reformers such as Levine still want to see more changes.
In 2014, legislation was introduced to change parole reviews so that they occur every two years, instead of five. The legislation also required that at least one parole board member speak to the prisoner, either in a video chat or a personal meeting.
Richardson says his next parole board review is in 2021.
And he says he dreams about getting out. He dreams about getting his chance to prove he can be a productive member of society, and live a normal life.
Man, I never even drove a car yet, he says. That's one of my biggest dreams, of just going and getting my license16 and learning to drive.
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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juveniles
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| n.青少年( juvenile的名词复数 )；扮演少年角色的演员；未成年人 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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eligible
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| adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的 | |
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inmate
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| n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人 | |
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rehabilitate
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| vt.改造(罪犯)，修复；vi.复兴，(罪犯)经受改造 | |
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prosecutor
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| n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人 | |
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prosecutors
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| 检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人 | |
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prosecuting
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| 检举、告发某人( prosecute的现在分词 )； 对某人提起公诉； 继续从事（某事物）； 担任控方律师 | |
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defendant
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| n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的 | |
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offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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culpable
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| adj.有罪的，该受谴责的 | |
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offenses
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| n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势 | |
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incarceration
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| n.监禁，禁闭；钳闭 | |
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license
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| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
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