“Dealing in Lives: Imposition of Federal Life Sentences for Drugs from 1990–2020”

I am extraordinarily pleased and proud to be able spotlight this terrific new research paper authored by Alex Fraga, who serves as a Senior Research Associate at Ohio State’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center (DEPC).  The paper shares the title of this post, and the work is an extraordinary compilation and examination of federal drug life sentence.  Here is the paper’s abstract:

The “tough on crime” era of the 1980’s and 1990’s ushered in a growing reliance on prisons, the ratcheting up of sentence lengths, and a broader expansion of the criminal justice system.  Life sentences, historically rarely imposed, became increasingly commonplace in the 1980s through the 2000s, contributing to the ballooning imprisoned population. While there are growing concerns about the increased use of life sentences in the United States, there has been limited empirical study of these sentences.  This report seeks to fill this gap with a particular focus on the federal sentencing system and the imposition of life sentences for drug offenses.  Specifically, the current report documents federal life sentences imposed for drug trafficking over the last three decades, taking a closer look at the defendant and case-specific characteristics, and providing a descriptive account of the factors that are associated with those sentenced to life in prison in federal courts.

At this DEPC webpage, a number of the paper’s key findings (and visuals) can be viewed.  Here is the first one:

Key Finding 1:  After record highs in the 1990s and 2000s, the number and rate of life and de facto life sentences imposed have declined significantly over the last decade.