Nicole Kish

Topic

Parole for Life: A Qualitative Inquiry into the Canadian Life Sentence

Department of Sociology

Date & location

• Thursday, September 12, 2024

• 9:30 A.M.

• Cornett Building

• Room A317

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Tamara Humphrey, Department of Sociology, University of Victoria (Supervisor)

  Dr. Midori Ogasawara, Department of Sociology, UVic (Member) 

External Examiner

• Dr. Justin Piche, Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Sang Nam, School of Business, UVic

   

Abstract

Life sentences in Canada punish individuals until their deaths, constituting the harshest sentence permissible under the Criminal Code, and are among the harshest versions of life imprisonment globally. There is a dearth of research into life sentences and their impacts in the Canadian context. To address this, this thesis presents the findings of a qualitative study that considers 19 interviews with life sentenced people in Canada who are living in the community on parole for life. It draws on standpoint theory, institutional ethnography, and thematic analysis as its methodological approach, centering the experiences of people with the sentence. This approach highlights the ways that life sentences constitute an opaquely administered sentencing regime that is operating in conflict with the listed goals and limits of Canada’s prison system. The goal of Canada’s prison system is to be reintegrative, yet through the administration of the sentence, life sentenced people are both expected to and prevented from reaching this goal. Findings are rooted in critical legal and political theory, which centers the impacts of law in society, and demonstrates that the conditions of parole for life are fracturing families and creating invisible isolation in the community in ways that are particularly harmful for Indigenous Peoples and the many very young people who are given live sentences in Canada. Further, the status of parole for life is explored both for the adverse impacts is creates for those who are subjected to it, and for the power potentialities that the increasingly normalized presence of this status provides the state, more broadly. Practical policy and legislative solutions are offered, emphasizing the need to legislate a process to terminate life sentence parole after a successful behavioral period is demonstrated in the community, which is aligned with international human rights law and the practices of many countries globally.