Hope and the Life Sentence

Abstract

Corrections officials, prison staff and many people incarcerated have long believed that hope derived from a realistic possibility of release is essential to maintain order and safety in the prison. Criminological research consistently finds, however, that people without foreseeable or realistic prospects for release nevertheless do hope. Yet while findings of hope in criminological literature are robust, they remain undeveloped. This article draws from hope studies in other disciplines to advance a model of types of hope, which is then used to analyse evidence of hope in prior criminological literature on life sentences and long prison terms. The article distinguishes hopes derived from legal opportunities and escapist fantasies from deeper hopes grounded in despair, highlighting hope as a site for further research.

Trajectories of hope/lessness among men and women in the late stage of a life sentence

“…It is important to note that Snyder's framework represents but one means of conceptualizing ‘hope’, a notion which has long eluded a singular definition or a consensus on its value or role in the subjective lives of individuals. Yet as Seeds (2021; see also hooks, 2003) notes, the ‘complex and multidimensional’ nature of hope as evidenced here appears to have been overlooked in much of the recent jurisprudence regarding whole life/LWOP sentences in the USA and Europe. Here, hope has been typically constructed as a unidimensional and ‘binary’ notion; something an individual either has or does not have, ‘leaving the concept's complexity untouched’ (2021: 2).…”

“…Yet hope (most commonly of eventual release) can survive under such extreme conditions; indeed, it plays a crucial role in motivating LWOP prisoners to take care of themselves physically and mentally and is perhaps the most important protective factor against suicide among this population (see, for example, Johnson and Leigey, 2020; Johnson and McGunigall-Smith, 2008; Leigey, 2015). In addition to hope grounded in ‘institutional’ and ‘escapist’ desires for release, Seeds (2021: 14) also notes the importance of ‘deep’ or ‘transformational’ hope in surviving whole life imprisonment, in which individuals focus on actively and agentically constructing a more ‘ethical’ self (see also Crewe et al, 2020: 197).…”

“…In their small post-release study of men serving determinate sentences in Israel, Vignansky et al (2018: 347) identified hope as the belief in a 'better and more meaningful future'. Yet critically, scholars also draw attention to the darker side of hope in prisons, particularly in terms of the consequences of 'false' or 'fairy tale' notions of hope (Van Ginneken, 2015: 14; see also Seeds, 2021;Vignansky et al, 2018).…”

“…As a consequence, attention has been largely drawn away from the ‘more fundamental’ questions about the humanity and legitimacy of such sentences (Vannier, 2016: 209). There is also little evidence that the lived ‘complexity’ of hope has been acknowledged within these discussions (Seeds, 2021).…”

“…Sociological accounts of hope among people serving life sentences have also been limited to some extent by the disproportionate emphasis on non-reducible life sentences (chiefly LWOP) and focus on penal systems in North America (e.g. Johnson and Leigey, 2020; Johnson and McGunigall-Smith, 2008; Leigey, 2015; Leigey and Ryder, 2015; Seeds, 2021; Wheelwright, 2017) and Europe (Vannier, 2016). Since the expectation and possibility of release is built into the very logic of all but a small minority of life sentences in England and Wales, 3 it is therefore likely that the operation and meaning of hope—as well as its diminishment and loss—within this specific geographical, cultural and penal context is shaped by different forces than those accounted for in much of the existing work.…”