BARNONE
← All research briefs

Research Brief No. 2 · Washington

Long and life sentences in Washington

Washington imprisons fewer people per resident than Idaho or Oregon. But nearly half of the people in its prisons are serving more than 10 years or life, a larger share than when the University of Washington first measured it in 2019, and most have no way to ask anyone to review their sentence.

BarNone researchNovember 2026Washington, with Idaho and Oregon for comparison

Key findings

What the numbers show

  1. 49%

    Share of people in Washington prisons sentenced to more than 10 years (28.6%) or to life (20.6%) in September 2026. In 2019 the share serving 10 or more years was 41.5%.1,2

  2. 181 vs. 490

    Sentenced people in state prison per 100,000 residents in Washington and Idaho. Oregon's rate is 291. Washington's low rate comes from admitting fewer people, not from shorter stays.4

  3. 22% vs. 8%

    Share of Washington's prison population serving life, life without parole or 50 or more years, compared with Oregon. Idaho's share is 7%.5

  4. 4×

    As many long, very long and life sentences were imposed in 2016 as in 1986, while violent crime fell. Sentencing laws, not crime, drove the growth.2

  5. 42 of 1,000+

    Petitions prosecutors filed after more than 1,000 requests for resentencing through August 2023. In 27 counties that received requests, prosecutors filed none.6

  6. 2 of 98

    People released early after long sentences for crimes committed as juveniles who were convicted of a new felony.6

Figure 1

A low incarceration rate hides a long-stay prison system

A prison population depends on how many people are sent to prison and how long they stay. Washington sends relatively few. It keeps many of them for a very long time.

Sentence ordered, share of Washington's prison population

Over 10 years
28.0%
Life with parole
16.5%
Life without parole
3.8%

December 31, 2024: 3,888 people serving over 10 years, 2,294 life with parole and 525 life without parole, together 6,707 of 13,867 people (48.3%). "Life with parole" in Washington mostly means indeterminate sentences for sex offenses, reviewed by the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board. Source: Washington Department of Corrections.3

People 56 and older in Washington prisons

56 to 60
827
61 to 65
600
66 to 70
355
Over 70
324

December 31, 2024: 2,106 people, about 15% of the prison population. The risk of reoffending falls sharply with age, while the cost of care rises. Source: Washington Department of Corrections.3

No public count of 20+ year sentences. The Department of Corrections groups every sentence over 10 years into one category, so no one publishes how many people are serving 20 years or more. That is the question BarNone is setting out to answer.

Uneven by race. Black people are 17.8% of people in Washington prisons and Native people 5.4%, compared with roughly 4% and 1% to 2% of the state's population.3 A 2025 study found Black people were 31% of emerging adults serving long or life sentences with no way to seek review.7

No path to review. The same study estimates nearly one in three people in Washington prisons is serving a long or life sentence with no parole review, including about 1,139 people serving 15 or more years for crimes committed at ages 18 to 25.7

How we got here

Sentencing laws, not crime, drove the growth

Katherine Beckett and Heather Evans analyzed every felony sentence in Washington Superior Courts from 1986 to mid-2017 for the ACLU of Washington. Their 2020 report, About Time, traced the rise in long sentences to a series of policy choices.2

  1. 1984
    Sentencing Reform Act. Abolished parole for crimes committed after July 1, 1984, so the sentence itself decides how long someone serves. Only people sentenced before 1984, people whose crimes were committed as juveniles, and people serving certain indeterminate sex-offense sentences can still go before the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board.
  2. 1986 on
    Offender-score changes. All but one of the Legislature's changes made prior convictions count for more. This was the single largest driver of long sentences.
  3. 1993
    Three strikes. Initiative 593 made Washington the first state with a three-strikes law, carrying mandatory life without parole. A two-strikes rule for certain sex offenses followed in 1996–97.
  4. 1994
    Auto-decline. Sent 16- and 17-year-olds charged with certain felonies straight to adult court. About 1,300 young people were convicted this way by 2012, and state researchers found it increased reoffending.
  5. 1995
    Hard Time for Armed Crime. Added firearm enhancements of 18, 36 or 60 months per count, served back to back and without good time.
  6. Since
    A growing trial penalty and tighter earned release. The gap between sentences after trial and after a plea deal widened sharply, and good time was capped at 10% for people convicted of serious violent offenses.

About Time sorts sentences into long (10 to 20 years), very long (20 to 40 years) and life, which includes life without parole and "virtual life" sentences of 40 years or more. In 2019, 697 people were serving life without parole and, as of 2015, another 632 were serving virtual life. Native people were 1.2% of the state's population but 2.4% of long sentences and 2.5% of very long sentences.2

What has changed since 2020

Reforms trimmed the edges. Review is still out of reach.

Courts

Limits for the young

Bassett (2018) barred life without parole for anyone under 18. Monschke (2021) struck down mandatory life without parole for aggravated murder at ages 18 to 20, though only about 39 people are estimated to be eligible.7 Houston-Sconiers (2017) requires judges to consider youth, but later rulings narrowed who can get relief.

Legislature

Narrow fixes

Robbery 2 came off the strike list in 2019, retroactively from 2021. Juvenile convictions stopped counting in adult offender scores in 2023, for new cases only. Making that retroactive would reach about 856 people, more than 40% of them Indigenous.9

Prosecutors

Resentencing, rarely used

A 2020 law lets prosecutors ask a court to resentence someone, but people cannot petition on their own. Through August 2023, prosecutors filed 42 petitions after more than 1,000 requests, and courts granted 41. Pierce, King and Clark counties filed 69% of them. For 37 people, total sentences fell from 731 years to 413.6

Clemency

No commutations since 2025

Governor Inslee granted clemency in 86 cases over 12 years. Since January 2025, Governor Ferguson has granted no commutations, including the 15 the Clemency and Pardons Board recommended, though the board doubled in size in 2025 under a broader "interest of justice" standard.8

Second-look bills keep stalling. In 2025, four sentencing bills cleared their House committees, including the Review Act (HB 1125), which would let a judge review a long sentence, and a review pathway for people sentenced for crimes committed before age 21 (HB 1317). None got a floor vote, and in 2026 the Review Act was sent back to Appropriations. Prosecutors and some victim advocates opposed the bills, citing harm to survivors and county costs. Our Brief No. 3, Who would benefit from the Review Act, has the full legislative record and a county-by-county count of who would be eligible.

Who could safely come home

People released after long sentences rarely return

Offending peaks in the late teens. Even people with the longest records usually stop by their mid-30s.

2 of 98

Washington: people released early after long sentences for crimes committed as juveniles who were convicted of a new felony. Five more returned for technical violations.

Beckett and Goldberg, 20246

4.1%

Washington: people 55 and older released in 2008 who returned to prison on a new crime within three years.

Washington Department of Corrections10

3.5%

Maryland: people released after an average of nearly 40 years under the Unger decision who had a new conviction, as of March 2024. All 200 had been convicted of murder, rape or felony murder.

The Sentencing Project, 202511

6 in 10

Crime victims nationally who prefer shorter sentences paired with prevention and rehabilitation. Some Washington survivors have testified against second-look bills, so any review process must notify survivors, hear them and fund their support.

Alliance for Safety and Justice, 202412

Figure 2

Fewer people in prison, a bigger share serving life, and the weakest review

Sentenced people in state prison per 100,000 residents, 2023

Idaho
490
Oregon
291
Wash.
181

Share of prison population serving life, life without parole or 50+ years, 2024

Idaho
7%
Oregon
8%
Wash.
22%

Imprisonment rates count sentenced people under state prison jurisdiction and exclude jails, so they are lower than the total incarceration rates on our homepage. In 2024, 3,018 people in Washington were serving life, life without parole or 50+ years, against 951 in Oregon and 728 in Idaho. Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics; The Sentencing Project.4,5

How people get a second lookWashingtonOregonIdaho
ParoleAbolished in 1984, except for juvenile, pre-1984 and some sex-offense casesLargely eliminatedKept: a fixed term, then discretionary parole
ResentencingOnly if the prosecutor petitions (2020)Prosecutor and the person can jointly petition (2021)No general mechanism
YouthBoard review after 20 years for crimes before age 18Second look halfway through the sentence (2019)Through parole

Nationally, 15 states, D.C. and the federal system have some form of second-look law, counting Washington's prosecutor-initiated resentencing. Maryland's 2025 Second Look Act covers people aged 18 to 24 at the offense who have served 20 years, and the Model Penal Code recommends judicial review after 15 years.13

Read with care

What this brief does not show

  • Sentences ordered, not time served. Department of Corrections figures describe the sentence a court imposed. Someone serving a 15-year sentence may be months or years from release.
  • Definitions differ by source. "Virtual life" means 40 or more years in About Time and 50 or more in The Sentencing Project's counts, so their totals differ. Life without parole counts range from 697 in 2019 to 525 in 2024, likely reflecting resentencings and deaths in custody.
  • Native people are undercounted nationally. National life-sentence data groups Native people under "Other," so regional comparisons by race are limited.
  • Some figures come from news reports. Clemency numbers through October 2026 are from news coverage, and the survivor survey is national.

Next steps

How many people are serving 20+ years, and who could safely come home?

No one publishes the number. Here is how we will produce it.

  1. Step 1
    Request person-level records. A de-identified snapshot of everyone in Washington prisons: the sentence and its parts, admission date and time served, release date, age at offense, race, ethnicity and tribal affiliation, offense, sentencing county, and conduct and custody level. A 2025 study used the same kind of request.
  2. Step 2
    Find what made each sentence long. Use Caseload Forecast Council sentencing data, as About Time did, to separate enhancements, offender score, three strikes, and trial versus plea.
  3. Step 3
    Keep definitions consistent. Follow About Time's categories so results compare over time, and report the 50-year definition separately.
  4. Step 4
    Model each reform. Count who would qualify under the Review Act's phases, review for people under 21 at the offense, a 15-year rule, Maryland's 18-to-24 rule, and age 55 plus 15 years served.
  5. Step 5
    Estimate who could safely come home. Combine age, time served, conduct and custody level with the reoffense evidence above, and price the result with Department of Corrections costs.
  6. Step 6
    Track the review that exists. No state agency tracks prosecutor resentencing requests or Review Board outcomes. We will request those records and publish them.

If you have data or experience that can help, get in touch.

Sources

Where the numbers come from

  1. Washington Department of Corrections, agency fact card, September 30, 2026. Sentences ordered.
  2. Katherine Beckett and Heather Evans, University of Washington, About Time: How Long and Life Sentences Fuel Mass Incarceration in Washington State, for ACLU of Washington, February 2020.
  3. Washington Department of Corrections, agency fact card, December 31, 2024.
  4. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2023: Statistical Tables. Sentenced prisoners per 100,000 residents.
  5. The Sentencing Project, A Matter of Life, 2024 data.
  6. Beckett and Goldberg, University of Washington, Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing in Washington State, June 2024. Petition records current through August 2023; court outcomes as of May 2024.
  7. Left Behind, 2025, based on Department of Corrections records from June 2023.
  8. Washington State Standard, October 3, 2026; InvestigateWest; Spokesman-Review, October 18, 2026.
  9. ACLU of Washington, 2026 legislative session report; Rep. Chris Stearns, February 2025.
  10. Washington Department of Corrections, aging population report.
  11. The Sentencing Project, Second look laws fact sheet, 2025.
  12. Alliance for Safety and Justice, Crime Survivors Speak, 2024 (national survey).
  13. The Sentencing Project, The Second Look Movement, August 2025; Maryland Second Look Act FAQ.

Suggested citation

BarNone. (2026). Long and life sentences in Washington (Research Brief No. 2). barnoneinc.org