Should a life sentence mean LIFE?

[LONDONER]

You'll see from this article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23230419

That the European Court is considering the matter. What is your opinion? Should "Life" mean "Life" with no possibility of release except under exceptional circumstances? Did these particular murderers consider the human rights of their victims?

[Buffylo]

This debate is why i am a fan of capital punishment over life sentences.

[LONDONER]

This debate is why i am a fan of capital punishment over life sentences.

No, it is not a debate about capital punishment, it's a debate about whether Life should mean Life. Don't hijack it.

[VileKyle]

I think it's too complicated too judge this for every prisoner at once. I think every prisoner should be treated case-by-case. Maybe for some people it should be life with no exceptions, but others may not deserve the same treatment. Of course I have no clue how to make that judgement and I am not, and will not be, a part of law enforcement. I have my opinions as an outsider, but I can't make the best call on this. It's tricky.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

I am against the idea of warehousing people.

Is there any rehabilitation effort made in European Prisons? I know there isn't much in the way of mental health care or rehabilitation in US prisons - only the most severely mental health patients are attended to, the rest are just held until X amount of time elapses.

We tried dealing with the insane by throwing them into houses of bedlam and letting time 'cure' them - it did no good. I fail to see why we stopped with 'criminal behavior' especially murder cases that are as extreme as these are. Clearly in these cases somebody's trolly jumped the tracks and an insane mind got loose to do havoc.

So does one throw a mental patient into the the mental ward 'for life' without treatment, or do we consider treatment, attempt it and if the patient gets better release the patient?

Does this apply here? Should it apply here?

I find it hard to believe that anyone could consider murder to be the act of a rational, healthy mind... but how we treat murderers seems to scream 'Nothing wrong with this mind!'

[LONDONER]

I am against the idea of warehousing people.

Is there any rehabilitation effort made in European Prisons? I know there isn't much in the way of mental health care or rehabilitation in US prisons - only the most severely mental health patients are attended to, the rest are just held until X amount of time elapses.

We tried dealing with the insane by throwing them into houses of bedlam and letting time 'cure' them - it did no good. I fail to see why we stopped with 'criminal behavior' especially murder cases that are as extreme as these are. Clearly in these cases somebody's trolly jumped the tracks and an insane mind got loose to do havoc.

So does one throw a mental patient into the the mental ward 'for life' without treatment, or do we consider treatment, attempt it and if the patient gets better release the patient?

Does this apply here? Should it apply here?

I find it hard to believe that anyone could consider murder to be the act of a rational, healthy mind... but how we treat murderers seems to scream 'Nothing wrong with this mind!'

Ian Brady, the infamous "Moors Murderer" who together with an accomplice, Myra Hindly" kidnapped, sexually abused, tortured and killed five children, recently lost his claimn to be transfrerred to a normal prison. At the moment he is imprisoned in Broadmoor, a prison for the criminally insane where he has been on hunger strike for more than 30 years and is force fed through a tube in his nose. He wanted to be transfrerred to a normal prison so that he could commit suicide.

This is obviously a case, in my opinion, when he should never be released. He would be a danger to the public even at his now advanced age.

In answer to your question, yes, rehabilitation is available in prisons in the UK at least. I can't speak for other countries.

[Kiid]

life should be life. Not part life. And death is to quick.

[Dreamer]

Life sentences don't reduce crime rates.

I like, more so, the premise of an eye for an eye jurisdiction.

Crime would go down significantly, I'm sure.

[SolemnBoy]

The ultimate goal with any punishment is to make the punished one realize the error of his previous ways, change his behaviour and retain his ability to live a normal life in society. Anything else would in my opinion defeat the purpose.

Some people, obviously, are beyond help and you can't just conduct a hasty investigation and conclude that a murderer, arsonist, rapist or whatever has been "rehabilitated". At the same time, careful, thorough and lengthy investigations by professionals with positive results should be enough for a shortened punishment in my opinion.

I can't help but think of Susan Atkins, one of Manson's accomplices who participated in the murder of Sharon Tate and many others. There's footage of her and her fellow perpetrators skipping gleefully up to court, laughing and singing and showing no remorse whatsoever for their deeds. More than 40 years later she caught cancer and with merely a few months to live pleaded for the revokal of her life-long sentence. She didn't get it and died in prison.

I remember watching an interview with her in which she claimed that the idea that in order to do monstrous things you have to be a monster simply isn't true and I actually sympathize with that sentiment. She met a manipulative and charismatic man at the young age of 18 who convinced her to do hideous things then spent the majority of her life in prison, begged for a chance to at least die in freedom but didn't get it. It made me sort of sad. Perhaps she didn't change at all and just pretended to in order to win back her freedom. To me, however, she came off as a completely different person with sincerity behind her words. If that was deemed to be true by someone more professional than me I think she would have deserved her freedom even if there's no way her victims could ever be redeemed in a similar fashion.

[LONDONER]

Quoted from Wikipedia:

"James Patrick Bulger (16 March 1990[1] – 12 February 1993) was a boy from Kirkby, England, who was murdered on 12 February 1993, at the age of two. He was abducted, tortured and murdered by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson (born 23 August 1982) and Jon Venables (born 13 August 1982).[2][3] Bulger disappeared from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, near Liverpool, while accompanying his mother. His mutilated body was found on a railway line two-and-a-half miles (4 km) away in Walton, two days after his murder. Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with Bulger's abduction and murder.

The pair were found guilty on 24 November 1993, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history. They were sentenced to custody until they reached adulthood, initially until the age of 18, and were released on a lifelong licence in June 2001. In 2010, Venables was returned to prison for violating the terms of his licence of release.

The case has prompted widespread debate on the issue of how to handle young offenders when they are sentenced or released from custody.

Venabales was returned to prison because it was found that he had downloaded child porn on to his computer. Now he is to be released again. I wonder what will happen if he violates the terms of his release again. The parents of James Bulger are naturally, appalled.