Adaptation, Hope(lessness) and Deterioration; Whole Life Imprisonment within England and Wales

This study considers some of the key issues associated with England and Wales’ most retributory form of life imprisonment, whole life orders; namely (1) their contemporary proliferation, and (2) their effect(s) on those who serve them. The study commences by considering the contemporary proliferation in the use of whole life orders; where existing research has considered the history and legitimacy of whole life orders, I used secondary data analysis to understand how (and why) the use of whole life orders has changed so considerably, particularly since the enactment of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. I also conducted qualitative interviews with a small sample of eight prison staff members from across two English and Welsh high-security prisons, to consider the ways in which male whole life order prisoners are observed (and/or perceived) by prison staff members to navigate and experience their whole life sentences, by means of pre-existing theoretical lenses. The study draws upon the pains of imprisonment framework (see Sykes, 1958; Crewe, 2011; Jewkes, Bennett and Crewe, 2016) and Snyder’s (1989; 1994a; 2002) theory of hope, to further existing (international) research and knowledge surrounding whole life sentence prisoners and whole life imprisonment more broadly, by considering whether (and/or how) whole life order prisoners are able to adapt and adjust to their sentence, and whether sentencing a person to whole life imprisonment also condemns a person to a life devoid of hope. The study identifies both individually experienced harms (e.g., physical and psychological) and human rights based harms which are specific to whole life order prisoners, and - in so doing - questions the extent to which whole life orders meet international human rights standards. This study ultimately provides a unique insight into our whole life order prisoner population, as well as the challenges that they face, and concludes by providing policy recommendations which aim to ensure that whole life orders meet international human rights standards, safeguard the rights of whole life order prisoners, and (most significantly) minimise the harms that whole life orders cause for those who serve them, thereby making an original contribution to existing research, knowledge and literature concerning whole life order prisoners and whole life imprisonment both within England and Wales, and internationally.