ABSTRACT
The death penalty has been touted for its ability to permanently incapacitate offenders. Despite the importance placed on a defendant's potential to commit additional bad acts in the future during capital murder trials, the sentence of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) is being relied on increasingly as an alternative to the death penalty in the United States (US). This chapter explores research related to incapacitation and the sentence of LWOP as well as issues stemming from housing this growing segment of the US prison population. One of the most devastating pains of imprisonment reported by LWOP inmates is "unremitting loneliness" from being permanently separated from family, children, grandchildren, and other loved ones, resulting in a "profound sense of loss". The management of LWOP inmates growing old in prison necessarily includes a discussion of their housing assignments. Some institutions have opened specialty units for older inmates, including the federal Administrative Maximum facility better known as super-max in Colorado.
