Managing the Risk of Living: Life Imprisonment, the Medical Gaze and the Construction of the Paroled Body.

This article examines how Israeli parole boards make release decisions for life-sentenced prisoners by focusing on the physical condition of applicants' bodies rather than their moral reform or rehabilitation. Drawing on 130 parole hearing transcripts from 2018 to 2020, the study finds that the board employs a detailed "medical gaze" to scrutinize applicants' health, primarily to assess whether they are close enough to death to justify release, effectively managing a "risk of living" rather than the traditional risk of reoffending. The board often treats medical claims with suspicion, criticizes applicants for their bodily state, and invokes populist and retributive discourses to deny parole, thereby subordinating considerations of personal growth or moral worth. This approach reveals the punitive nature of parole in life sentences, where release is contingent on imminent death rather than rehabilitation or reintegration.