10 January, 2014

Even life prisoners should have hope and a chance to change | Dirk van Zyl Smit | Comment is free | theguardian.com

Even life prisoners should have hope and a chance to change | Dirk van Zyl Smit | Comment is free | theguardian.com: A commitment that we will never consider the release of some offenders serving life sentences, except perhaps when they are at death's door, means that we write them off permanently. It means that we deny that with the passage of time they may change for the better; or that we may change our assessment of their crimes.

Worse still, we are denying some fellow humans all hope. In that sense we are putting them in the same position as those awaiting execution on death row.