“Some guys don’t break any rules. They do their jobs, they go to school, they don’t commit any infractions, they keep their cells clean and tidy, and they follow the rules. And usually those are our LWOPs [life without parole]. They’re usually our easiest keepers.”
Too Easy to Keep directs much-needed attention toward a neglected group of American prisoners—the large and growing population of inmates serving life sentences. Drawing on extensive interviews with lifers and with prison staff, Too Easy to Keep charts the challenges that a life sentence poses—both to the prisoners and to the staffers charged with caring for them. Surprisingly, many lifers show remarkable resilience and craft lives of notable purpose. Yet their eventual decline will pose challenges to the institutions that house them. Rich in data, Too Easy to Keep illustrates the harsh consequences of excessive sentences and demonstrates a keen need to reconsider punishment policy.
Steve Herbert is Mark Torrance Professor and Department Chair of Law, Societies, and Justice at the University of Washington. He is the author of Policing Space: Territoriality and the Los Angeles Police Department; Citizens, Cops, and Power: Recognizing the Limits of Community; and, with Katherine Beckett, Banished: The New Social Control in Urban America.
“By giving agency to prisoners through narrative, Steve Herbert draws into sharp relief the limits of the narrow correctional labeling of life-sentenced prisoners as ‘easy keepers,’ providing deep insights that will be of great interest to diverse audiences.”—Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, University of Delaware
“If one were to read only one book on life-sentenced prisoners, this would be it. Herbert writes beautifully, clearly, and compellingly, reinforcing and extending the main points of a growing body of research on lifer adjustment.”—Robert Johnson, American University
184 pp.5.5 x 8.25Illus: 0
9780520300514$29.95|£25.00Paper
Jan 2019