I know people serving life without parole. One of them especially I'm fond of. One of the funniest, nicest people I've met. Two people were killed. Did he do it? I couldn't tell you. I've read his entire case file multiple times and I can't say for certain if he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was arrested at 19 and will never see the light of day unless the law changes. If he had a lot of money for a lawyer he could probably get his sentence converted to a fixed duration, since there is now case law saying those under 21 should not be given indefinite sentences due to the undeveloped nature of their brains.

I'm actually amazed at the statistic that only 3% return to prison. There are actually very little resources for those getting released, and if your entire family and friends are gone, you have no support network to fall back on. Perhaps getting out above retirement age gives you access to more charities and a small state pension that will allow you to find a place to live and buy food.

One of the saddest cases I know of is a man who did 50 straight years then needed money when he got out, so his daughter persuaded him to go shoplifting with her and he got arrested immediately and sent back for another three years.

If this person was freed from prison and then the relatives of the two dead people killed him in retaliation, how much prison time do you think it would be just for them to receive? Deterring this kind of informal retaliatory murder is one of the jobs of harsh sentences in the formal criminal justice system.

>I've read his entire case file multiple times and I can't say for certain if he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Surely there would be an indictment alleging what he did?