Abstract
A life sentence is the ‘most extreme sanction of the state’ (p. 1) in the absence of capital punishment. Despite the fact that England and Wales does not sentence people who offended to hundreds of years in prison (like the US), the two introductory chapters outline how and why sentences have increased, and set out the context for the research. It is perhaps not surprising that being sentenced to a long term in prison at a young – and thus formative – age would be both traumatic and disruptive of one’s social identity. Crewe, Hulley and Wright set out to explore in rich empirical detail the types and manner of the trauma and disruptions involved. In doing so, this work addresses a significant gap within the existing literature. The impact of long sentences on men and women in prison have not to date received much academic attention, despite the value that lies in understanding better whether the well-known pains and deprivations of imprisonment (Sykes, 2007) are exacerbated by long sentences.
The research this book is based on is ambitious indeed, with over 300 male and female participants, representing a significant proportion of men and women sentenced to life before the age of 26. The participants were drawn from a wide range of prisons in England and Wales, thus strengthening the case for arguing that the findings may be applicable to the population as a whole. The inclusion of women allowed for an insightful analysis of the ways in which gender shaped the prison experience. The authors, however, do recognise one key limitation: those who were transferred to secure psychiatric hospitals, which was a significant minority of eligible people, were excluded. Thus, these findings may not be applicable to those with ‘the most acute psychological and psychiatric difficulties’ (p. 61).
The authors were clearly able to engage their participants and elicit in-depth responses about a range of highly emotive and deeply personal issues. This is indeed a credit to their approach to data collection and the rapport built with their participants. For example, there was striking discussion of flashbacks of what happened during the index offence: one woman described this vividly: It was like it was happening again, I was there all over again, I could smell it, I could hear it, I could see it. Sometimes, I could feel the heat, I’d feel the heat [of the victim set on fire]. (p. 101)
The analysis of the empirical data gives a fascinating, broad insight into the multiple ways in which the social identity of people in prison was shaped by life sentences. One of the key themes discussed was that of ‘biographical rupture’ (p. 79 – emphasis in original). This referred to the way in which a life sentence damaged one’s sense of self, social relationships and expected life courses. The authors discuss the obvious trauma of receiving a life sentence and early adaptation, but go beyond that to analyse the biographical rupture involved in receiving a life sentence. For example, they discuss the destruction of future plans, such as holidays, plans of employment and other expected biographical milestones. Arguably, more could have been done with this by drawing on sociology of the life course and gender – for instance, themes of loss of motherhood and ageing may be especially prominent for women serving life sentencing due to the social construction of womanhood as being centred on youth, beauty and motherhood (see Kotova, 2019 in the context of women whose partners are serving long prison sentences).
Moreover, this book discussed the effect of life sentences on the social relationships of people in prison. The participants felt their social lives were ruptured, with separation from loved ones and friends being one of the most painful aspects of a life sentence. Intimate relationships often disintegrated, which is in line with previous research. The book also discusses the ways in which life sentences affected people’s social roles as sons, fathers, daughters, mothers, etc. Some men reported a closer relationship with their parents, at times because imprisonment meant a removal from a chaotic and troubled life and the opportunity to reflect on one’s relationships. For women, being stripped of their role as mothers was painful indeed.
I was, however, surprised that work on families of people serving long sentences was not engaged with. Although the authors discuss the impact of life sentences on familial relationships, my own work (Kotova, 2019) on partners of men serving long sentences and Annison and Condry’s (2018) work on families of people subject to Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences further reinforce the findings of Crewe and his colleagues. For instance, my research found that long sentences similarly disrupted the life course of partners outside and created a sense of temporal disconnect. It might well be that the manuscript was prepared before these papers were published, but regardless, it is worth bearing this work on families in mind because the two sets of experiences are strikingly similar. Including a discussion of this work would have strengthened the argument being made in this book because it would have provided a useful way of triangulating data collected from those on the outside and those men and women interviewed as part of the study this book is based on. Moreover, further integrating work on families with work on people in prison further shows the fact that the social lives of those outside are often inexorably connected to and affected by what happens within prisons, which is all too often unrecognised within studies on imprisonment and within policy discourse. As argued recently by Condry and Minson (2020), families experience symbiotic pains of imprisonment – this book could have elaborated further on this symbiosis of life sentences and the lives of those outside, and how this in turn shaped the experiences of the people the authors interviewed. Considering that the impact on families was briefly addressed, there was scope for this kind of discussion within this book.
Third, the book focuses on adaptation and coping strategies of people serving life sentences from a young age. This book develops the existing work on how people serving long sentences reformulated their lives around the prison becoming their ‘primary life domain’ (p. 135). The authors discuss how adaptation was facilitated by outside life beginning to ‘fade away and dwindle’ (p. 143). The authors do note that life imprisonment was recognised by some prisoners to have had beneficial consequences: one participant said that it was the ‘best thing’ (p. 150) for him because he expected he would have died of drink or drugs if he had not been sent to prison. This adds much-needed nuance to our understanding of imprisonment and add significantly to the scholarship that seeks to challenge the view that prisons are places when nothing positive exists at all (see also Liebling, 2004, on how positive moral climates within prisons can exist). Some participants used education and faith practices to engage in self-development during their sentence, for example.
Overall, this is an engaging book that provides an excellent in-depth analysis of long-term imprisonment from an early age. It addresses the social and psychological complexities of adapting to and coping with life sentences and evidences the discussion with touching, often heart-breaking interview excerpts. This book will undoubtedly become a key resource for anyone studying imprisonment in general and long-term imprisonment specifically.
