Should whole life sentences be automatic for convicted murderers?

[TheKittenswithMittens]

Life should mean life. Murderers should spend the rest of their lives incarcerated. People like Digwa should know from the moment of their conviction that they are never going to be let out.

Agreed. The current sentencing guidelines are clearly not enough of a deterrent.

I don’t think they should be automatic in all circumstances. But I do think many more murderers should receive whole life sentences.

The average cost of a prisoner per year in England and Wales is £53k (more than double the cost per year for an unemployed disabled person on benefits)

We can’t afford to lock them up for life.
We would have to build a lot more prisons.

It depends on whether a full life sentence would act as a deterant. If full life, tariffs halved the murder rate, then we would have a saving.

Sentencing guidelines are a fucking joke and have been for a very long time. It’s clearly related to the cost it takes to keep them in prison. It’s absolutely pathetic. It’s been as such for so long now that you’d think they’d have found a way around it. But nope, let them out and let many just carry on as they were. No deterrent. The justice system is an absolute joke. And no part of it is funny.

No, but I think the sentences for serious violent and sexual offences are often too lenient in the UK.

They would not, based on history.
The murder rate declined when we abolished the death penalty and declined again when whole life sentences were shortened to long term sentences.
Now this is very simplistic because there isn’t really a direct cause and effect relationship between punishment and crime.

There is a direct cause and effect relationship between poverty & oppression and all violent crimes, including homicide.
There is a direct cause and effect relationship between lack of health care and violent crimes.
There is an indirect cause and effect relationship between prior exposure to violence as a victim or witness and becoming a violent criminal.

These and other confounding factors obscure the impact of severity of sentence as a potential deterrent or encouragement. For some criminals, a whole life tariff could be an encouragement to murder. There was an interesting case of a mass murderer in the US where they do have full life sentences. She confessed that she specifically planned a mall shooting in the US so that she would not have to deal with the normal life of getting job, paying rent, stressing over where her next meal would come from. She researched how many people she’d have to kill to get free room and board for life. Obviously, she was also mentally ill but then most murderers are not fully sane imho.