When a life sentence is a death sentence

For those with few prospects of leaving prison, the sense of hopelessness and despair can be overwhelming. I know, because I’m one of them.

Exterior of MCI-Framingham.Wiggs, Jonathan Globe Staff

Carlos Maldonado is serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole at a prison in Massachusetts.

Last year’s wave of suicides inside Massachusetts prisons brought renewed attention to conditions within the state prison system. An independent report commissioned by the Massachusetts Department of Correction identified a toxic combination of drugs, isolation, and lack of mental health support as likely factors in the suicide deaths of six incarcerated men last year. The report, however, failed to mention another crucial element: their sentences. Five of the six suicide victims were serving sentences of at least 25 years to life. Though these men ended their own lives, some may have already been condemned to die in prison.

For those with few prospects of leaving prison, the sense of hopelessness and despair can be overwhelming. I know, because I’m one of them. In December 2006, I fatally shot a man following an altercation. After a jury found me guilty of first-degree murder and the illegal possession of a firearm, I was given a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. I was judged as utterly irredeemable.

It’s hard to live knowing that my entire existence has been reduced to my worst decision. Yet, during my nearly two decades behind bars, I’ve improved my life. Today, I don’t have a single disciplinary infraction to my name. I’m a mentor to many, and I will graduate with a bachelor’s degree from Boston College in September. I’ve transformed myself not because my sentence requires it, but because it’s the right thing to do. I’m not the same person I was at 24 when I committed my crime. Still, my sentence renders my self-improvement irrelevant.

My experience is not uncommon. While Massachusetts boasts the lowest overall rate of incarceration in the nation, it has one of the highest percentages of people serving life sentences without possibility of parole. Add in those serving life sentences with the possibility of parole and almost one-third of the state’s prison population faces the possibility of living out their lives behind bars. Massachusetts may no longer have the death penalty, but a life sentence serves a similar purpose: a gradual death by incarceration.

To understand how the state got here we need to go back to the 1980s. In response to public tension over crime, a raging crack cocaine epidemic, and the political exploitation of Willie Horton’s crime spree while on a weekend furlough from a state prison, Massachusetts adopted a harsher approach to incarceration. The goal of imprisonment shifted from a balance between rehabilitation and punishment to mainly punishment, with little consideration for second chances. The prison population exploded as a result, and the application of extreme sentences became routine. By the early 2000s, Massachusetts had imprisoned more than 10,000 people.

Today, thanks in part to reforms in 2018 that removed mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenses, the number of prisoners is significantly lower. Yet the proportion of those incarcerated for life has remained constant.

In a recent editorial, the Globe urged the state to address the systemic issues that are contributing to prison suicides. “No matter the crime, prison was not meant to be a death sentence for those confined to the state’s facilities,” the Globe concluded. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what prison is for many of us — “a death sentence.”

A fellow prisoner, who is also serving life, recently shared that he has thought of death as the only solution to his troubles. Struggling with anxiety and depression, he said he once considered swallowing a “bunch of Percocets” before going to bed so that he’d die in his sleep. “They’d find me in the morning, and that would be that,” he told me. Fortunately, he has found the motivation to keep going. Yet, unless reforms to curb extreme sentences are made, we’ll both die here.

The 2024 Supreme Judicial Court ruling banning sentences of life without the possibility of parole for those who committed their crime while under the age of 21, on the grounds that imposing such sentences on emerging adults amounts to “cruel and unusual punishment,” was a much-needed step in the right direction, but more is needed.

There are several reforms that would help address the hopelessness that causes many prisoners to question whether life is worth living: providing compassionate release for sick and dying prisoners, passing “Second Look” legislation to afford reformed prisoners the chance to show their transformation to a judge, raising the emerging adult age to 25 in accordance with the latest neuroscience, and granting executive clemency on a routine basis.

Beyond all of these common-sense reforms, the six suicide deaths in Massachusetts state prisons last year should lead to a serious reexamination of life without parole and other extreme sentences. Otherwise, some people behind bars will continue to see suicide as their only hope for release.