Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

U.S. Prisons: Geriatric Injustice
16 May 2017
🖨️ Print Article

One out of every 7 of the nation’s prison inmates is serving a life sentence, according to a report by The Sentencing Project. For Blacks, the proportion of lifers is in 1 in 5. Despite a growing consensus for prison reform, “We see life sentences continue to accumulate,” said senior research analyst, Ashley Nellis. Most people “age out of bad behavior” in their 20s and 30s, “so incarcerating them for decades past that point serves no public safety benefit,” she said.


More Stories


  • Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Colin Kaepernick’s “The Perilous Fight”
    16 Sep 2026
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Colin Kaepernick.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    A Climate “Movement” Homonym: (Or, How the Big Apple’s Annual Environmental Gathering Surfaces an Imperative Inquiry, Climate Week or Climate Weak?)
    16 Sep 2026
    The climate movement has been captured by a professional managerial class that prefers charity galas and virtue signaling to building power.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Find me another 11,780 votes?
    16 Sep 2026
    "Find me another 11,780 votes?" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • The Cradle News Desk
    Yemen vows ‘no security’ for Saudi Arabia after major missile, drone attack
    16 Sep 2026
    The Yemeni attack involved dozens of ballistic missiles and drones, targeting sites from which Saudi warplanes took off to strike Yemen.
  • Berthony Dupont
    What Is Happening to the Haitian Left?
    16 Sep 2026
    Responsibility for Haiti's deteriorating conditions does not rest on the Haitian masses. A population does not rise up spontaneously but depends on political movements and organizations to build it.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us