Summary: <p><b>Original Air Date: August 30, 2022</b></p> <p><span>More than</span><span><span> </span>55,000 people<span> </span></span><span>across the U.S. are incarcerated with the sentence of<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/08/life-without-parole-prison-angola-louisiana-visiting-room"><span> </span>life without the possibility of parole.</a><span> </span>This population been rising sharply in the past few decades, with an increase of 66% since 2003, according to<span> </span><span>research by<span> </span><a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/nothing-but-time-elderly-americans-serving-life-without-parole/">The Sentencing Project.</a></span></span></p> <p><span><span>For those <span>who are sentenced to live and die behind prison walls, there is a sense that they have been forgotten. B<span>ut a new project is documenting some of their stories: </span></span></span></span><span><a href="https://www.visitingroomproject.org/">The Visiting Room Project</a> features interviews with more than 100 men who are serving with life without parole at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola. </span></p> <p>The Takeaway spoke with Project co-creator,<span> </span><a href="http://cas.loyno.edu/sociology/bios/marcus-m-kondkar-phd">Dr. Marcus Kondkar<span> </span></a>of Loyola University New Orleans, and with Mr. Arthur Carter, who was recently released from Angola after his life without parole sentence was reduced.</p> <p>"I think that once you get a chance to see this is the person that the taxpayers are still holding in prison, I think the question should resonate:<span> </span><em>why they still are? Why are they still serving life sentences with no possibility of going home?</em>" said Mr. Carter.</p>
