HausFrau Speaks-Natural Life

Hello everyone!  Sorry to bombard your inbox!

This is the rest of David.Lohr article on Huffington Post about what life will be like at Perryville, if Arias receives "Natural Life" not the death penalty.

If this blog is interesting or of value to you, will you please tell your friends?  If you've got something in your mind, I welcome "Guest Bloggers", so please just let me know!  As always, thank you for your support and love!  I'll try my best to find my funny bone soon...I'm just not able to find much "funny" about the wholesale slaughter of a man who wasn't a saint, just a man.  I don't know about yall...but no one has ever given me or mine a car...and said "pay whatever you can, when you can"!  Travis Alexander's main fault was he didn't tell Arias to "go get a life"!

Natural Life

If Arias receives a sentence of natural life -- life without parole, that is -- she'll enjoy better living conditions, though not right away.

"If someone comes in with a [natural] life or 25-to-life sentence, they would start at max custody for the first couple years, so they would initially be in the same situation as someone on death row," Bill Lamoreaux, the public information officer for the Arizona Department of Corrections, told HuffPost.

So, for the first few years behind bars, Arias would face the same treatment as someone on death row, albeit in a different area of the prison. Time spent in maximum custody would depend on a number of factors, including her behavior.

In all probability, Arias would be moved to the less-restrictive "close custody" within two years, and to medium custody within five years of that, Toersbijns said. Given the nature of her crime, medium custody is the lowest classification Arias can earn. Compared to life on death row, medium custody comes with benefits.

"She'll be able to do time in general population, in a dormitory setting and could foreseeably get a good job," Toersbijns said. "Her notoriety and the money people keep putting on her books would also make her influential over other inmates."

There is much more freedom in medium custody and visitations are not restricted to behind glass. Physical contact is, of course, limited, but not altogether banned.

"She is already adjusted to the Joe Arpaio jail, so she won't suffer much [in medium security]," Toersbijns said. "She could basically make a new life for herself behind bars."

Life With The Possibility Of Release Eligibility After 25 Years

The best-case scenario for Arias -- and the least plausible outcome, according to Toersbijns and Hamm -- is life with the possibility of release eligibility after 25 years.

With that sentence, all the restrictions of a natural life sentence apply, but there is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. However, just what that light means is yet to be seen.

"No one knows in Arizona what it means to say life with possibility of release eligibility after 25 years," Hamm said. 

"That law went into effect in 1994, so we haven't had the first prisoner come up on that 25-year mark yet, and they won’t until 2019," Hamm continued. "So will it mean parole eligibility? We don't know because parole was eliminated under the 1994 code. Some officials believe it means the inmate can apply for a reduced sentence, but no one knows how it will be handled."

Could Notoriety Be Arias' Downfall?

If Arias does escape death, there is a possibility that she could be forced to remain in maximum-security housing. 

"She could theoretically be given a classification override by the department that would keep her in a higher-level facility, simply because of the notoriety of the case," Hamm said. "I don't know that they apply that often, but they certainly have the ability to do that."

Unlike the first trial, a deadlock this time will not buy Arias any more time. It would simply ensure she escapes death.

"The judge has to sentence her to life if they can't agree on a verdict this time," Hamm said. "The prosecution doesn't get a third bite at the apple to give her death. That's the law."