A life sentence in the UK lasts for the rest of a person’s life meaning that even if they are released from prison and commit another crime, they could be sent back to prison at any time. The first whole life prison sentence was set in Britain in the 1980s and it has been used by the courts since then. It has been reported that the UK has the highest number of life sentence prisoners in Europe in a Prison reform campaign with there being 8,554 inmates across the UK serving life sentences in 2018 (which is more than Frane, Germany and Italy combined) and there have been various debates and concerns due to these staggering statistics as to whether prisons, and life sentences specifically, in the UK are requiring reform.
Reform is Unnecessary
In England and Wales, most prisoners with life sentences will be eligible for parole or “early release” after their minimum term set by the judge, with judges only ordering a “whole life order” for exceptionally grave cases. For example, for those convicted of murder, they will always be given a life sentence but the judge always sets a minimum amount of time they must serve before being considered for parole with the minimum depending on the nature of the murder. Typical minimum prison terms for murderers over the age of 21 include:
30 years: for a "sexual or sadistic" murder, or killing done in the course of personal gain, such as a robbery
25 years: for a murder involving a knife or other weapon
15 years: for most other murders
This means that although a criminal could be sentenced to their whole life in prison, this is is not as barbaric as it seems as they often receive shorter sentences in practice as they are released on parole. This gives them an opportunity for reform which shows the possibility of empathy within a life sentence.
Despite that reform has been called for life sentences within the UK, the European Court of Human Rights has not necessarily always agreed that reform is wholly necessary. In 2017, the ECHR judges confirmed the right of British courts to impose “life must mean life” sentences in the most heinous cases of murder, which further reiterates that life sentences within the UK are not an unjust punishments for some crimes and suggests why reform of or eradicating prison life sentences in the UK is superfluous. This was also highlighted through the ruling by 17 judges in the chamber of the Strasbourg court when they dismissed an appeal brought by the triple murderer Arthur Hutchinson, 75, who had been sentenced to spend the rest of his natural life behind bars for the murder of three family members and the rape of a young woman who was staying in the house at the time. This shows how, in some brutal cases, life sentences are a reasonable punishment for convicts as it can be seen that prison life sentences keep society safer and are a suitable consequence for the extremely barbaric crimes.
Reform is Necessary
Although prisoners are eligible for parole which could aid in reforming them, this is not always the case. Douglas Vinter, a man who is serving a whole-life prison sentence has claimed that when “the judge sentenced [him] to natural life, he gave [him] an invisible licence that said that I can breach any laws I want, no matter how serious, and the law can't touch me. I'm above the law. [He] said to the governor, don't waste any money on investigations, just give me another life sentence for my collection. They don't mean anything any more." This clearly strips the challenge that life sentences are justifiable as, instead of them pushing prisoners to reform, they can be seen as a pathway to more crime instead, specifically if it is a life sentence.
As well as this, it was stated earlier how the ECHR justified the use of life sentences however the UK is not obliged to always follow the decisions of that Court. This has been witnessed before in cases such as the 2015 Prisoner Voting case brought by John Hirst, who previously served 25 years in jail. Despite the court ruling in his favour and stating that prisoners should be given the right to vote, the UK has yet to do this, 6 years on, so it can be argued that the opinion of the ECHR in the situation to do with prison reform could be rendered useless as it has not made an impact before.
There are many other issues with life sentences, particularly concerning the economy and their effectiveness. In the UK, it has been estimated that £22,993 has been spent per prisoner per year so a more cost effective solution could be ideal when it comes to life imprisonment instead of spending so much money per year. It has also been shown that systems, such as those in Norway, that do not impose life sentences have been seen to have better outcomes overall for crime rates. For example, the UK has an imprisonment rate of 120 per 100,000, whereas Norway’s incarceration rate is around half that, at 74 per 100,000. Therefore it is perceivable that the UK’s incarceration rate could be lowered if there were no life imprisonments in the UK, which could ultimately contribute to a safer society as the crime rate would be lower.
Life Imprisonment: Yes or No?
To culminate this debate, there is a strong argument that prison reform is necessary. Although less than a fraction of the arguments for or against life imprisonment have been covered in just over a 1000 words, the drawbacks of a life sentence, whether that be their extent of justice or their benefits to the financial sector of the UK always outweigh, in some way, the strengths of life imprisonment. Whether it be a pragmatic solution such as putting caps on the years of imprisonment per prisoner, or something radical like getting rid of life imprisonment altogether, it is obvious there are significant issues within the life sentence that the UK justice system needs to adapt.
References:
Court, T., n.d. The Supreme Court and Europe - The Supreme Court. [online] Supremecourt.uk. Available at: <https://www.supremecourt.uk/about/the-supreme-court-and-europe.html#:~:text=The%20Human%20Rights%20Act%20also,the%20decisions%20of%20that%20Court.> [Accessed 23 May 2021]
The Reeves Law Group. n.d. Fact or Fiction: Not All “Life Sentences” Around the World Are Actually for Life | The Reeves Law Group. [online] Available at: <https://www.robertreeveslaw.com/blog/life-sentences/> [Accessed 22 May 2021]
Forrest, A., 2018. UK has highest number of life sentence prisoners in Europe, study finds. [online] The Independent. Available at: <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-prisoners-life-sentences-europe-pri son-reform-trust-study-a8674766.html> [Accessed 22 May 2021]
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HISTORY. 2013. Last woman hanged for murder in Great Britain. [online] Available at: <https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/last-woman-hanged-for-murder-in-great-britain#: ~:text=In%201965%2C%20the%20death%20penalty,in%20Great%20Britain%20until%2019 98.> [Accessed 22 May 2021]
Travis, A., 2017. European judges uphold UK right to impose whole-life jail sentences. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/jan/17/european-judges-uphold-uk-right-to-impose- whole-life-jail-sentences> [Accessed 22 May 2021]
GOV.UK. n.d. Types of prison sentences. [online] Available at: <https://www.gov.uk/types-of-prison-sentence/life-sentences> [Accessed 22 May 2021]
BBC News. 2019. Why do prisoners serve only half their sentence?. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49886053> [Accessed 22 May 2021].
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