The epilogue tracks the consequences of the developments in chapter 9 with a focus on the rise of people serving sentences of life without parole and the increase in elderly prisoners. Clemency declined nationwide since the 1990s, following a new logic of zero risk and the rejection of the rehabilitative ideal. As clemency has become a political third rail, incarcerated people have had to adapt to new possibility that they will die in prison. Further, they have faced increasing spatial isolation due to the recent trend of siting prisons in rural areas and the normalization of solitary confinement. But prisoners and their allies, such as those who formed Right to Redemption, continue to struggle for their physical freedom and freedom from the stigma of their original convictions.
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