A photographer spent over a decade documenting women convicted of homicide and sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. — challenging the idea that they can be defined by a single act.

Former public defender turned photographer Sara Bennett’s intimate portraits of women serving life sentences, taken over 13 years, form a new book called Looking Inside: Women with Life Sentences (published by Kehrer Verlag). Bennett’s book explores the complexity and humanity of women who are, and have always been, more than the single act that sent them to prison for life.

Her long-term project traces the women’s lives across time and space: inside prison walls, in their post-incarceration bedrooms, and as they re-enter the outside world after decades behind bars. Through tender portraits and personal ephemera, such as Polaroids, letters, drawings, and handwritten notes, Bennett creates a layered narrative that offers a rare perspective, resisting stereo- type.

According to a report by Huck Mag, Bennett’s photographs grew out of her experience as a public defender, where she became increasingly troubled by the conditions inside prisons and the criminal justice system. The project began in 2009 while Bennett was working pro bono on the clemency case of Judith Clark, who was serving a life sentence at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women for her role in the 1981 Brink’s armored car robbery that killed two police officers and a security guard.

While preparing Clark’s clemency application, Bennett photographed 15 women incarcerated alongside her. The portraits accompanied written testimonies describing Clark’s contributions in prison, including her advocacy for HIV-positive inmates and programs supporting incarcerated mothers.

“I began photographing because I was deeply frustrated with the criminal legal system,” Bennett tells Huck Mag. “I believed that if judges, prosecutors, and legislators could see people who have been convicted of serious crimes as individual human beings, they would rethink policies that lock them away forever.”

Clark’s sentence was commuted by then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2016, and she was released from prison in 2019. Bennett later left her career as a public defender to focus on photography, writing, and advocacy. The publication is complemented by a powerful afterword by Clark, who served 38 years in prison and is now Director of the Survivors Justice Project.

Looking Inside: Women with Life Sentences by Sara Bennett can be purchased here.