68 // Death By Incarceration / Episode Thirty-Seven / Conversation with Christopher Seeds

Christopher Seeds is Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine. Chris is the Author of Death By Prison, a book about Life without Parole
In recent decades, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (LWOP) has developed into a distinctive penal form in the United States, one firmly entrenched in US policy-making, judicial and prosecutorial decision-making, correctional practice, and public discourse. LWOP is now a routine practice, but how it came to be so remains in question. Fifty years ago, imprisonment of a person until death was an extraordinary punishment; today, it accounts for the sentences of an increasing number of prisoners in the United States. What explains the shifts in penal practice and social imagination by which we have become accustomed to imprisoning people until death without any reevaluation or expectation of release? Combining a wide historical lens with detailed state- and institutional-level research, Death by Prison offers a provocative new foundation for questioning this deeply problematic practice that has escaped close scrutiny for too long.
Follow DBI on Twitter & Instagram. Be sure to visit the DBI WEBSITE.
Check out some Suave with the media on WHYY and on MSNBC. His amazing artwork is available for viewing and purchase at the Morton Contemporary Gallery here. 
Music by Gordon Withers. Check out his WEBSITE and follow on Instagram.
Edited by Jason Usry. Follow him on Twitter
Listen to Kevin's show Adulting Well. And check out his company Social Imprints.
Death By Incarceration is a Glassbox Media show.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher Seeds is Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine. Chris is the Author of Death By Prison, a book about Life without Parole

In recent decades, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (LWOP) has developed into a distinctive penal form in the United States, one firmly entrenched in US policy-making, judicial and prosecutorial decision-making, correctional practice, and public discourse. LWOP is now a routine practice, but how it came to be so remains in question. Fifty years ago, imprisonment of a person until death was an extraordinary punishment; today, it accounts for the sentences of an increasing number of prisoners in the United States. What explains the shifts in penal practice and social imagination by which we have become accustomed to imprisoning people until death without any reevaluation or expectation of release? Combining a wide historical lens with detailed state- and institutional-level research, Death by Prison offers a provocative new foundation for questioning this deeply problematic practice that has escaped close scrutiny for too long.

Follow DBI on Twitter & Instagram. Be sure to visit the DBI WEBSITE.

Check out some Suave with the media on WHYY and on MSNBC. His amazing artwork is available for viewing and purchase at the Morton Contemporary Gallery here. 

Music by Gordon Withers. Check out his WEBSITE and follow on Instagram.

Edited by Jason Usry. Follow him on Twitter

Listen to Kevin's show Adulting Well. And check out his company Social Imprints.

Death By Incarceration is a Glassbox Media show.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices