Long Term Offenders, or LTOs, is the state’s term for those it condemns to effectivedeath by imprisonment. Often serving sentences of sixty to eighty years,LTOs bear the brunt of the bipartisan embrace of mass incarceration heralded bythe “tough on crime” agenda of the 1990s and 2000s. Like the rest of the UnitedStates’ prison population—theworld’s highest per capita—theyare disproportionatelypoor and non-white.The Long Term brings these often silenced voices to light, offering a powerfulindictment of the prison-industrialcomplex from activists, scholars, and thosedirectly surviving and resisting these sentences. In showing the devastationcaused by a draconian prison system, the essays also highlight the humanity andcourage of the people most affected.This striking collection of essays gives voice to people both inside and outsideprison struggling for liberation, dismantles claims that the “tough on crime”agenda and LTO sentencing keep us safe, and reveals the white supremacismand patriarchy upon which the prison system rests. In its place, the contributorspropose a range of far-reaching reforms and raise the even more radical demandof abolition, drawing on the experience of campaigns in the United States andbeyond.
