lifer

lifer

Someone who will serve some duty or sentence or in some position for the rest of their life. Typically used in reference to the military or prison. I knew I was a military lifer when I tried to rejoin civilian life and felt completely ill at ease. They try to keep the lifers together, as it tends to cause less friction than having them around men with short sentences. John's a lifer—that guy will work here until he dies.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

lifer

(ˈlɑɪfɚ)
n. someone who is attached to an institution for life, such as a lifetime soldier or a prisoner serving a life sentence. (Prisons and military.) Most of the lifers are kept in this cell block.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • keel over
  • a night person
  • buck the trend
  • any (one) worth (one's) salt
  • BYOM
  • walk it off
  • walk off
  • BYO
  • young man
  • cart off
References in periodicals archive
The book further details the lives of these women in prison as the authors describe the various programs that are offered to lifers, the difficulties adjusting to prison life and culture, the struggles to maintain relationships outside the walls of the prison, and the physical, mental and emotional difficulties they face over the years.
"If it did not, their hope for some years of life outside prison walls must be restored." He told states to review the prison terms of incarcerated lifers, noting that sentences without parole should be reserved for only the "rarest of juvenile offenders, those whose crimes reflect permanent incorrigibility."
This seemed a common thread with the majority of the lifer community.
Country lifers questioned the legitimacy of the state because of the spatial and participatory separation between the federal government and rural folk.
The superintendent has told me that he thinks his prison is safer, less violent, with fewer riots and killings than in other prisons because of the influence of the lifers. Robert Johnson, Ph.D., a professor in the department of justice, law, and society at American University in Washington, whose observations inspired this month's question, has offered data bearing out the superintendent's observations.
Research suggests that the vast majority of lifers opt to avoid trouble and to make the most of the opportunities for work, education and rehabilitative programs in prison (see Johnson, 2002).
The decline in the number of paroles given to lifers, both because more defendants are now being sentence to life without parole and because parole boards have grown charier of releasing prisoners, means that more and more prisoners are spending all their lives in prison without hope of ever getting out.
Lifer was editor in chief of School Library Journal (SLJ).
Forty lifers got out last October compared to 92 in the whole of 1995.
Such a query relates to The Big Test's larger theme: "Who succeeds in America, and why?" Lemann identifies three tracks to success, represented by three types of citizens: Mandarins, Talents, and Lifers. Mandarins go to the best schools and think that, by dint of their education, they are indispensable to managing the massive machinery of the modern state.
Mrs Rankin, 81, was found LIFER Karen dead at her Dublin Road home in Newry, Co Down, on Christmas Day, 2008.
He is tempted by a friend and a beautiful Lifer girl, Siobhan, to try a potion that will make him smarter.
A real estate lifer unable to pull himself away, Benitez says that on vacations he will often find himself out scouting areas for development.
"But the usual scenario is that gay sex is instigated by a lifer who turns to other men after about 10 to 12 years inside, out of frustration.
One lifer even had his own clothes shop, from which he persuaded other convicts to buy clothes.