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15 Years Before Parole, Should Life Actually Mean Life?
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So you think that somebody who commits a crime at 15 and lives to 80, say, should serve 65 years in jail, whereas somebody who commits exactly the same offence at 70 should only serve 10?
If you sentence all killers to life with no possibility of parole, as has been said before you finish up with jails on the American model, where many staff members are terrified to go near the inmates, where people with no possibility of ever getting out become even more feral and killings are the order of the day.
I'm not saying that 15 years is enough for this terror, just that there is a system, designed to ensure that he serves time appropriate to the crime. Many people whose crimes were particularly nasty are still inside years after their minimum period has expired. But we don't hear about them, only the ones that the press deem to be worth a story.
If you sentence all killers to life with no possibility of parole, as has been said before you finish up with jails on the American model, where many staff members are terrified to go near the inmates, where people with no possibility of ever getting out become even more feral and killings are the order of the day.
I'm not saying that 15 years is enough for this terror, just that there is a system, designed to ensure that he serves time appropriate to the crime. Many people whose crimes were particularly nasty are still inside years after their minimum period has expired. But we don't hear about them, only the ones that the press deem to be worth a story.
As has been pointed out it is NOT parole after 15 years!
15 years is the minimum before he can start the process of applying for release on licence. In reality it is very unlikely he will be allowed even apply for a lot more than 15 years. Once he is allowed to apply for release on licence the process will take months or years for a decision. If that decision is negative he has to wait several more years before he can start it again.
Then even if he does get a release it is only 'On Licence' he can be returned to prison immediately for any breach of the licence conditions without another court hearing. That will continue until he does die so in that sense 'life does mean life'.
Prison does not deter violent crime, you only have to look at the USA where 1,000 year sentences are regularly handed out to see that.
15 years is the minimum before he can start the process of applying for release on licence. In reality it is very unlikely he will be allowed even apply for a lot more than 15 years. Once he is allowed to apply for release on licence the process will take months or years for a decision. If that decision is negative he has to wait several more years before he can start it again.
Then even if he does get a release it is only 'On Licence' he can be returned to prison immediately for any breach of the licence conditions without another court hearing. That will continue until he does die so in that sense 'life does mean life'.
Prison does not deter violent crime, you only have to look at the USA where 1,000 year sentences are regularly handed out to see that.
Eddie makes my point far more eloquently than I.
It has been proved in many surveys over the years that it isn't the actual penalty that is the deterrent, it's the certainty of being caught at all. Perhaps, if the press placed more weight on the fact that, at the last count, 92% of all murders in England and Wales were cleared up within a year of the offence and that that percentage rises even higher after a bit longer, we might have fewer of this sort of crime.
But that wouldn't sell newspapers.
It has been proved in many surveys over the years that it isn't the actual penalty that is the deterrent, it's the certainty of being caught at all. Perhaps, if the press placed more weight on the fact that, at the last count, 92% of all murders in England and Wales were cleared up within a year of the offence and that that percentage rises even higher after a bit longer, we might have fewer of this sort of crime.
But that wouldn't sell newspapers.
I'm going against everyone here. While he committed a vile crime, he was only 15 with the mental age of an 11 year old, with possibly a terrible family background, no father figure, in a gang of other violent thugs, I think he deserves another hope of a chance. With education in prison and maturity who knows how he could change and possibly help other kids from similar backgrounds?
If it looks he won't change he won't get parole anyway, so he'll stay locked away.
If it looks he won't change he won't get parole anyway, so he'll stay locked away.
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