How long is life in prison in the UK?

Answer 1

A life sentence is a "life sentence" regardless of the country in which it is imposed. Generally the sentencing will be, "life without the possibility of parole" or something similar.

The convicted person then will have at least one automatic appeal unless he or she entered a guilty plea, although entering such a plea in the US does not necessarily negate the possibility of an appeal.

Life Sentences in England & WalesThere are 3 forms of life sentence. #1 Mandatory life sentence, which must be imposed following a conviction for murder. #2 Discretionary life sentence is one of more than 70 offences, other than murder, for which the law allows a sentence up to a maximum of life imprisonment (Solomon 2004). This often includes serious sexual and violent offences such as manslaughter, grievous bodily harm and rape. #3 Is the automatic life sentence. Under section 2 of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997, a life sentence was automatically imposed for a 2nd or subsequent conviction for a serious sexual or violent offence unless exceptional circumstances exist for not doing so. This was phased out in 2005, and replaced by the Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection, or IPP. This is normally imposed under similar circumstances to the old automatic life sentence, but the sentencing court has a little more discretion than under the old law. There are still automatic lifers in the prison system, and will be for some time to come.

Each person sentenced to life will have a tariff set, which will be the minimum time that they will spend in custody for the purposes of retribution and deterrence. Once this has expired, they will not be released automatically, but will be when the Parole Board assesses that the risk they present to the public has sufficiently reduced in order that it is safe to release them.

On the average a life sentence prisoner spend 13.7 years in prison! Once released they will be supervised in the community for a period and for the rest of their life they are liable to be recalled to prison should they represent a risk to the public. There are approx. 1,500 life sentence prisoners being actively supervised in the community and over 300 were released into the community for the first time in 2003. During 2002, 26 people were recalled to prison, including 7 who had been in the community for 10 years.

Since life sentence population has been steadily increasing over the last 10 years, (a reflection both of prisoners serving longer periods in custody and more people receiving life sentences.) This is like to increase as the impact of IPP sentences increases and the Criminal Justice Act 2003 introduced normal tariffs of 15 years, 30 years and whole life for the offence of murder, potentially increasing the amount of time lifers spend in prison.

Answer 2

It varies but depends on the minimal term set by the Judge, after the minimal term has been reached the prisoner is entitled for parole, Where he must prove he is no longer a risk, this is often very difficult and most people are very unlikely to get released on their first parole, if they are rejected they will have another parole board between 1-2 years later, usually.

Often these prisoners will be required to complete courses first, however many people are not eligible and are therefore rejected over and over again.

Due to the high levels of violence, lack of activities, limited exercise and poor quality food and the easy availability of drugs (many of which come in through the staff) many people form drug addictions as a way to escape which can harm their chances of getting out and if they do get parole they are often mentally ill, and usually undiagnosed caused by the environment in which they have lived which increases their risk to the public, however as it is all just a tickbox exercise prisoners do learn over the years what needs to be said to be released. Statistically a psychopath is much more likely to be granted release on first parole.

In the 1970's Professor Skinner concluded that the only way to change human behaviour is via reward based training and that punishment is counter-productive, this has been tested many times since and is considered scientific fact.

Look at it in terms of another animal, such as a dog, if you have a dog who has been unfortunate enough to of had a poor upbringing, or not learned correct behaviour and then as a result acts out, by biting, or eating something it shouldnt etc, if you were then to give it poor quality food, locked into a cage for 23 hours a day, made to socialise with other poorly behaved dogs and generally treat it badly, when that dog is finally let out into doggy society, do you think it is now more or less likely to bite, or eat something it shouldnt?

I find it very sad how most people will be able to relate better with a dog than a fellow human, however this punishment based sentencing results in a re offending rate of 85% in the UK, this means prison in the UK increases the harm to the public, whereas in Norway, where they focus on social skills and treat their prisoners with respect, well their re offending rate is 15%.

So people before you say life should mean life, or that you hope the prisoner has a hard time, maybe you should look at the society which creates these criminals and then intentionally makes them worse.

Answer 3

15 - 30 years depending on the severity of the offence. 15 - 30 years depending on the severity of the offence.

Answer 4

Manslaughter is the crime of accidentally killing someone. In the UK there is no specific amount of years in prison that you would get for it.