The Center for Life Without Parole Studies
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The Center for Life Without Parole Studies
A Message From Founder and CEO Susan E.Lawrence,M.D.,Esq.
There was a time in which I, like many others, believed that life without parole (LWOP) was a humane alternative to traditional forms of ex*****on. That changed in 2004, when I began teaching a course, “Creating a Healing Society,” in a California state prison. At that time I was the CEO of The Catalyst Foundation, a nonprofit organization I founded in 1992, whose mission was to raise awareness of the impact of childhood trauma as the root cause and driving force of the most serious problems facing our society today, including violence, crime, and incarceration. Sharing these concepts with maximum-security prisoners, helping them to see the hidden motivators of their criminal behavior, seemed a worthy activity in pursuit of creating a healthier world.
It is said all true benefits are mutual, and what I learned during the many years I volunteered at the prison was nothing short of astonishing. I was permitted access to a hidden world few are privileged to see. Many of the prisoners I met were good and decent people who, a long time ago, had made terrible mistakes, but had rehabilitated themselves to an extraordinary degree. These were people I would not hesitate to have as my neighbors; however, no matter how impressive their transformation, how sincere their remorse, or how great their desire to make up for wrongs done, they would never again be welcome in society. Over time, as my students came to trust me, they revealed to me the truth and agony of serving LWOP. Through their eyes I saw the ravaging effects of aging in prison; the helplessness and desperation to obtain needed medical care; the terror of being permanently cut off from loved ones; and the daily dehumanizing and abusive treatment that would cease only with the end of life itself. I came to see that LWOP is, in fact, the death penalty.
