| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 9:02:42 AM | A recent survey has shown that a vast proportion of those serving time in our jails for crimes such as manslaughter, violent rape or armed robbery served a mere 9 years inside and those convicted of murder, an average of 16 years.
Is our legal system too lenient when sentencing convicted criminals for the more serious crimes?
Do you believe that life should mean life especially in the case of murder? | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 9:09:35 AM | | Our legal system is way out of date!Yes, life should mean life otherwise why call it a life sentence?What sort of deterent is it for these criminals when they know that a life sentence is going to be no more than 16 years max! | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 9:10:07 AM | Yes life should mean life, definitely... I know it would mean more crowding and more money spent on the criminals but some of this could be offset by stopping imprisoning little old ladies who don't pay £20 on their council tax bills... Also have them working menial tasks... Sweat shop work... So Primark and Adidas can still sell cheap shiit at huge profits but it's not at the cost of the freedom small children... All profits going back into the prison system...
Life sentences should be for murder, violent rape and child abuse ... There should be stronger and harsher sentences for other 'lesser' violent crimes with the emphasis being on rehabilitation and anger management... Other crimes should work on a 3 strikes and you're out system, similar to the US...
Our entire penal system needs a shake up.... The above is very basic and is obviously not to be taken as it is written... There will be mitigating circumstances in some cases where the punishment needs to be either harsher or more lenient... But on the whole, that's pretty much it for me...
vvv I spat my tea.. You owe me a laptop!!!!!! | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 9:21:14 AM | If you want to look at something scarey google average prison sentences and read the various links.
off topic, cannot say what went thru my mind when panties wanted to shake the penal system 
edit, now we know you spit lmfao | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 9:33:05 AM | If life meant life this would increase the number of people calling for the death penalty, because there are some people who will never be satisfied.
I know I am possibly going out on a limb but I believe it will not reduce the pain, the suffering and the feeling of loss. It would not help the victim's family and friends get on with their lives, because the loss, the suffering and the pain is for the victim and not for the killer. My son's friend was stabbed to death a couple of years ago. His mother told me it made no difference to her as to whether the murderer went to prison for one year or one hundred years. It wouldn't bring her son back and it wouldn't make her feel any less pain. There are some people who feel the opposite way about this and I do understand why.
Each sentence should be based on the merits of individual cases, not on what politicians think, or what the general public think. Justice is not a group exercise for viligantes or otherwise. In order to have a fair trial it means that there is no political intervention and that the outcome is not decided before the trial ends.
In answer to the question should life mean life? In some cases yes but in most cases no. | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 9:35:20 AM |
Do you believe that life should mean life especially in the case of murder?
Each case is different and so the circumstances should mean that sentances vary. There shouldn't be a one size fits all approach as this couldn't really be called justice.
Maybe we chould just drop the term "life" as it seems to confuse many people who take it literally when in this context that isn't the way it's intended. | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 9:38:55 AM | Yes.
Also life sentences should be more wide ranging and should cover more crimes where life would be the minimum sentence to include child molestation/abuse, rape, persistent offenders (even for minor crimes), possesion of a lethal weapon, using a lethal weapon. Minimum sentences for low level crime should also be made much longer.
People behind bars should also expect to have no civil liberties, as they have already decided to act in a way which would suggest they could'nt give a monkeys about the general publics civil liberties.
Our current penal system is a joke with what seems like lightweight sentences being given too people who commit serious crimes, especially those crimes that involve violence. | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 9:53:23 AM | Each case should be looked at individually, and in some cases the sentence should be longer. Bearing in mind that a 15 year sentence most often means 10 years in reality.
2 individual circumstances of people who have been imprisoned for murder;
1st - lives a very profitable life for many years as a drug dealer which also means organising the disappearance or severe impairment of people who get on the wrong side of him. Finally gets caught for a gruesome murder of someone who tried to rip him off financially
2nd - lives as a normal citizen, but has copious amounts amounts of alcohol one night. Gets involved in a fight and kills someone. Can't even remember the night.
The first i would give a life sentence, the second I wouldn't feel justified in locking up for life. Maybe because I know them, but the first is someone I would feel is a dangerous man, the second I just find it hard to believe he did what he did. | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 10:03:20 AM | shouldnt "life" mean death? ( in a lot of circumstances) what is the point of keeping some of the vermin that inhabit our prisons alive? two recent examples spring to mind, what about him that killed baby p and raped a two year old? what about the man who stabbed a pregnant woman in grimsby (who he didnt know)
these people should never come out of prison ever ,its alright people saying he was mentally ill and didnt know what he was doing he still did it ,i dont mean this in a vindictive way but why bother keeping them alive? what will they ever contribute to society? | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 10:08:46 AM |
The first i would give a life sentence, the second I wouldn't feel justified in locking up for life. Maybe because I know them, but the first is someone I would feel is a dangerous man, the second I just find it hard to believe he did what he did.
Hence the reason in the states for murder one, two etc, I think there should be an automatic full life term for certain types of killer, and allow mitigation for the less culpable, ie, the drunken brawl or the wife who snaps after years of beatings, stuff that is'nt premeditated or commited during the commission of a crime. | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 10:36:00 AM | It really depends on what the sentence is designed to achieve.
If it's a deterrent then Life should mean life.
If it's for public safety then a sentence should be a long as it takes to remove any threat.
If it's for revenge then as long as it takes for the public to feel satisfied.
This is where it's gone wrong I think - The system doesnt really know why we send peeps to prison. | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 10:38:19 AM | | if you keep every single lifer in gaol until they die..then you might as well just bring back the death sentence..cos you are just basicly burying them alive at the tax payers expense..there is different types of murder..if a normal law abiding man catches his wife in bed with another bloke..then has a moment of blind rage and kills one of them..then you are gonna have to treat him the same way as you would ian huntley or peter sutcliff and keep him locked up until he rots to death..i dont think it is a good thing..every criminal case has to be treated different and be sentenced accordingly.. | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 10:41:27 AM | if a normal law abiding man catches his wife in bed with another bloke..then has a moment of blind rage and kills one of them
This used to be called a crime of passion but they did away with that - now you have to plea diminished responsibility through due provocation or something complex like that.
Prolly simpler to just do the time!
FYI In Scotland It's not called Murder, it's "Maddah" - I saw it on Taggart
"There's been a Maddah"
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 10:54:02 AM |
Yes life should mean life, definitely... I know it would mean more crowding and more money spent on the criminals but some of this could be offset by stopping imprisoning little old ladies who don't pay £20 on their council tax bills...
How many little old ladies do you think we have in prison??? Firstly, the female prison populations is only around 1 tenth of the male population anyway, of that percentage, I doubt 1% is 'in' for non payment of council tax. I don't think your numbers would add up.
Secondly, if you start giving fixed sentences you stop taking into account how a prisoner may be rehabilitated. So a boy who commits murder at 16 through stupidity spends 60 years inside? rather than maybe a man emerging 16 years later who understands their crime and has perhaps in some way paid for it. after all, even 16 years is not exactly an overnight stay.
Also have them working menial tasks...
Fair enough, I agree, but not:
Sweat shop work... So Primark and Adidas can still sell cheap shiit at huge profits but it's not at the cost of the freedom small children...
Well, horrible though it is, families, and a lot of those children rely on those jobs. If you want to do good, pay a little more for your sweater....in relative terms you can afford it and THAT will pay for increased wages and better working conditions. YOU drive the system that pays pittances to small kids by buying the clothes.......much like fair trade coffee, if you buy the right clothes from certain retailers who make efforts to increase the welfare of their employees, you would encourage the lower end of the market to do the same through lack of sales.
{quote]All profits going back into the prison system...
What profits? Your numbrs would never add up. The supervision and security required in the factory would eat up more than any cost saving in not having to employ a third world child. | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 11:08:11 AM | I've always held the belief that extreme criminals have an illness, now before you say "here we go" let me just say my piece...
Take serial rapists or paedophiles (careful tho', I don't mean a 16 year old who has consentual sex with a 15 year old technicality bullshit, I mean actual sickos).
To say that its a crime is an insult to everyone else, a crime is to stick a mars bar in your pocket, or to find a tenner and not hand it in, something that many people may do.
Ok, I know thats a little far-fetched, but you get my drift.
There have been times when I have been an uncaught criminal, I have stopped on a road where the kerb was marked with yellow stripes, I have 'borrowed' the odd screw or 2 from previous employers, but I have NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER felt the inclination to kidnap and rape a child.
So, which is it, Am I the normal one, or not?
The reason we find it difficult to refer to it as a sickness is the thought that he would be sent 'for treatment' and released.
And, you're right, that's what would happen, so we need to rethink our strategy on this type of severe incurable anti-humanity mental illness.
And have them put to sleep - permanantely | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 11:46:55 AM |
I've always held the belief that extreme criminals have an illness, now before you say "here we go" let me just say my piece...
So the armed robber who shoots dead an unarmed policewoman whilst trying to evade capture is just ill, not a carrer criminal prepared to stop at nothing to escape with his ill gotten gains? HERE WE GO ! | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 11:50:20 AM | Anyone convicted of murder is given a life sentence and only released on licence, they can be recalled at anytime, especially if they reoffend and have to live out the rest of the sentence.
You also have to consider the role of prison ie, is it a form of punishment or a means of removing dangerous people from society. Is removing someone from society punishment enough for murder? Considering also the majority of murderers have killed their spouse and pose very little threat to society.
Then you have to consider the society you want to live in. Do you want to live in a society that shows no remorse? Do we treat someone who killed their abusive spouse the same as a pervert who raped and killed a child, is murder, murder?
You also have to consider what happens to criminals, if they believe they have no means of release they become problem prisoners and will cost the state more money.
If you chose to execute these people instead, you must accept that you will inevitably make mistakes.
This is far too big a topic to give a straight yes/no reply... | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 11:54:59 AM |
Should Life mean life?
Every case is different and should be judged on its own circumstances / merits.
Sentences this short may not be posted. | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 12:00:22 PM |
Prison should serve 3 basic purposes, punishment, removal of criminals from general society and to act as a detterent to others.
If criminals see that a life sentence actually means 25 years, then its not acting as an effective detterent.
If a criminal is released early its not in the interest of the general public to have somebody who commited a crime worthy of a life sentence, released early.
If life meant life or for that matter a sentence imposed was exactly what it says on the tin, then 25 years 30 years,etc would mean precisley that, and be a more effective detterent, than those criminals who play the system and get early releases from sentences. | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 2:24:10 PM | well the bible says an eye for an eye! so you get drunk and kill some one, no one forced you to drink it. and the jelous husband, he can walk away. its not just the act of killing someone its the devastated families you leave behind, theres is a life sentence an it is for life. if they are proven beyond all doubt then they should be publicly executed then otheres may think and act diferently. is it humane no but neather is them living in luxury in prison for the rest of there days there victims dont have any choice they did. | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 2:44:44 PM | I used to write to a death row inmate...
He was a soldier who had come home from Vietnam on leave to find his girlfriend black and blue from a beating her drug addled mother gave her, he shot her dead... He was 18...
He was 36 when I started writing to him and no longer the man who committed the murder.. he'd lived half his lifetime in solitary, with no hope and nothing to think about other than his impending execution... He was killed in 2007...
How dreadful must that be... To live a life filled with no hope whatsoever..
I think taking away any hope of freedom from someone is the worst punishment imaginable... And really that's what we want isn't it? To punish a criminal for their crime... Rehabilitation and the eventual release of a criminal isn't really top of our agenda when we read of yet another murder is it...
I agree that we should not tarnish every murderer with the same brush but unfortunately the lines are so blurred as to be practically indistinguishable... There will be mitigating circumstances, there will be those who are good candidates for rehabilitation... But I think if courts are given guidance's that set sentences high and then give recommendations for when they should be reduced and have minimums rather than having maximums then we would see far more appropriate punishments... | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/7/2009 2:48:51 PM |
well the bible says an eye for an eye
Doesn't it also say forgive your enemies!!
Just playing devils advocate  | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/8/2009 2:18:44 AM | Murders happen for too many different reasons and in too many scanarios for there to be a rigid justice system
I forgot who compared someone who is intentionally going out to murder someone with a guy who hits someone in a fight after getting drunk ... well the second is manslaughter or culpable homicide not murder.
Murder is intentional ..anyone who sets out armed with the intention to take someone else's life should be jailed for life. It's premeditated. Not heat of the moment or an accident due to carelessness but purposely setting out with the sole intention of ending someones life.
I certainly don't feel 16 years is by any means long enough. As for rapists, people who fiddle about with kids or distribute sick photos of them, they should be locked up for life as imo they will never be 'fixed'. I think murderers can be rehabilitated and quite often are ... however they should definitely not be let out after 9 years. The sex offenders should never see the light of day again | |
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| Should Life mean life?
Posted: 7/8/2009 2:53:47 AM | Yes people are no longer afraid of killing as theyknow they'll either never go to prison or will go for a far shorter term than they deserve.
If you kill another person, either purposely or by selfish acts such as getting drunk then running them over, then you should be killed.
That would scare people and make them think far more than a couple of months being put away | |
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