Too Easy to Keep

Abstract

Life-sentenced prisoners are a growing proportion of America’s incarcerated population. Too Easy to Keep provides a thorough assessment of the consequences of this monumental shift. It examines the implications of growing numbers of life sentences for both prisoners serving that sentence and the prisons that house them. It draws upon extensive interviews with life-sentenced prisoners and prison staff in two Washington facilities. The data demonstrate that many lifers build lives of considerable purpose and meaning, and devote themselves to improving the circumstances of others. They become, in prison terms, “easy keepers,” and provide considerable stability to the institutions that house them. Yet as they age and decline, life-sentenced prisoners prove harder to accommodate. Prison staff thus struggle to meet the needs of this rapidly-growing population. Too Easy to Keep reviews the challenges that aging prisoners will pose, and thereby provides much cause for a reconsideration of America’s punishment policies.