End Life Without Parole
Minnesota should end life without parole (LWOP).
Life without parole is a sentence that requires a person to spend the rest of their life in prison. It tells a person they can never return home — regardless of how much they change, how much they contribute to their community, or how many decades they spend demonstrating rehabilitation.
We believe accountability and hope are not opposites. A safe and just system should hold people accountable for serious harm while recognizing that people can change. Ending life without parole in Minnesota would create a meaningful opportunity for people serving life sentences to earn release through rehabilitation and demonstrated readiness to safely return home.
Why End LWOP?
Life without parole does not make us safer. There is little evidence that extreme sentences deter crime. What does promote safety is giving people pathways to rehabilitation, stable housing, employment, treatment, family connection, and meaningful community support.
People change. Many people who have spent decades in prison become leaders in creating safer prison communities: mentoring others, de-escalating conflicts, and leading educational, cultural, and religious programs. A sentence should leave room to recognize genuine transformation.
LWOP is not applied equally. Who receives the most extreme sentences is shaped by racial and structural inequalities in the criminal legal system. Black and American Indian Minnesotans are dramatically overrepresented in Minnesota’s prison population. Black Minnesotans make up 39.5% of the state’s prison population but approximately 8.3% of the state’s population—nearly five times their share of the population (US Census Bureau; Prison Policy Initiative). American Indian Minnesotans make up 9.4% of the prison population but approximately 1.7% of the state’s population—more than five times their share (US Census Bureau; Prison Policy Initiative).
Permanent incarceration is expensive. Keeping one person incarcerated costs Minnesota taxpayers about $60,000 per year (Minnesota Department of Corrections, FY2025 Performance Report). For someone serving life without parole, that means millions of taxpayer dollars are spent incarcerating a single person over the course of decades. As incarcerated people age, the costs of healthcare and other services increase substantially. When a person can safely return to the community, continuing to pay for decades of incarceration is not an economical approach to public safety.
People age out of crime. Minnesota’s prison population is aging, with nearly one in five people incarcerated aged 50 or older. Keeping people incarcerated for life when they no longer pose a significant public safety risk is neither humane nor an efficient use of public resources.
Hope promotes rehabilitation. A person who knows that nothing they do can ever change their sentence has little incentive to work toward release. Creating a meaningful possibility of earning freedom gives people a reason to participate in education, treatment, restorative practices, and other forms of rehabilitation.
Accountability Without Permanent Exile
Ending LWOP does not mean eliminating accountability.
Under the Hope Act, people serving life sentences would not simply be released. They would have to demonstrate that they have changed and that they can safely return to the community. Those who are released would be subject to a period of supervision.
We also believe victims and survivors deserve meaningful opportunities to participate in decisions about release and supervision. Justice can recognize the seriousness of harm while still recognizing the possibility of transformation.
Minnesota Can Choose Hope
Minnesota abolished the death penalty in 1911. We do not need a sentence that guarantees a person will die in prison instead.
Life without parole closes the door permanently.
We believe Minnesota should leave the door open for people to change, to take responsibility, and — when they can safely do so — to come home.
The Hope Act would end life without parole and restore the possibility of earned release, rehabilitation, and hope — while making responsible use of taxpayer dollars.