There is a coming crisis in the American criminal legal system involving the development of two policies in the United States – the expansive use of life-without-parole sentences (LWOP) and the expanding legalization of medical assistance in dying (MAID). While MAID remains a controversial practice, most arguments on the subject consider its use for terminally ill patients in hospital settings. But what about people in prison? In this book, criminologists James W. Marquart and Joshua S. Long trace the development of LWOP sentencing practices and their consequences alongside the global use of MAID for incarcerated populations. Examining individual cases, legal arguments, sentencing data, and mortality data alongside the first national public opinion poll gauging support in the U.S. for MAID in prisons, the book starts a critical conversation on the correctional context of MAID in US prisons.

‘The authors of this powerful book have extensive experience interviewing life-sentenced prisoners across the United States. They unflinchingly examine the overlapping controversies of the death penalty, life imprisonment without parole, and medically-assisted dying, showing how new tactics of ‘extreme punishment resulting in death' have silently surged. They boldly expose the moral and financial ‘train wreck' that is coming.'

Alison Liebling - Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Cambridge