175 years in prison

[Cauliflowersqueeze]

For the gymnasts’ doctor in USA and an assurance from the judge he would not see daylight again.

Meanwhile Worboys out in 9 years from an “indeterminate” sentence.

Why is the UK system so tolerant?

I think there are some people who should be locked up for life, but it is good that in our system most serious offenders e.g. murderers get a life sentence and then are eligible for parole at some point. It doesn't mean they'll get parole. As PP said, if whole life sentences were more prevalent we'd need a lot more/different prisons. Also in a lot of cases, especially involving young offenders, it might deter juries from murder convictions, thus having an opposite effect to that intended.

The info Graphista posted about people serving life sentences being released was interesting. There are cases when a murder has been committed and the jury is right to convict and yet the perpetrator may be much less 'bad' or dangerous than another person convicted of a crime short of murder such as rape, GBH. Not every murder deserves the same punishment and surely that was acknowledged when we still had the death penalty? Not every murderer was hanged.

Victims should probably have more rights than they do - thinking of the Worboys case, all those who made accusations which the police knew about but which he wasn't convicted of should surely have been kept informed? - but should not have a say in sentencing. Judges have criteria they have to follow and barristers put forward the aggravating and mitigating circumstances in each case. that is done in open court, which is a good thing.

Does it also mean that when he dies his body won’t be released for burial, as he is still subject to the DoC? Bit macabre.

Is this a real question? Like, they just leave his body laying there decomposing in a cell? No, of course not, people get sentences that long so they'll never be eligible for parole. You're usually eligible for parole after you've served a percentage of your sentence. If your sentence is 175 years, you'll never reach that point and this never be eligible for parole.