LOOKING INSIDE: Portraits of Women Serving Life Sentences

More than 200,000 people in the United States are serving life sentences, a punishment that barely exists in other western countries. I’ve long believed that if judges, prosecutors, and legislators could see people convicted of serious crimes as individual human beings, they would rethink the policies that lock them away forever. Before I photographed each of these women—all convicted of homicide—I visited them, learning about their lives. It broke my heart to meet a young woman who had been sentenced as a 15-year-old to life in prison, to meet a 70-year-old who wonders whether she’ll die behind bars, and all the women in between. Each woman is so much more than the one act that sent her to prison for life. They are all hard-working, resilient, dignified, introspective, and remorseful. They strive to live a meaningful life, to be worthy of our compassion. Which leaves us with the question: what do we do with a redeemed life?