Life in prison in the UK, means 15 years, 50% off for "good behaviour", so you serve about 7.5 years. Shouldn't life mean LIFE, locked up till you die?

"Life" does not mean 15 years, it basically means that the justice system can decide when the culprit is let out on parole. The judge at the trial can set a "tariff", a minimum number of years to be served - which is not subject to "time off for good behaviour". If he does not do so, the parole board may start considering parole after perhaps eight years. But their decision is very much based on the prisoners behaviour and the details of the crime. There is no "good behaviour" automatic discount on the life sentence.

The problem is that murder, of any sort, carries a mandatory "life sentence", But not all murders are the same. The cynical preplanned kidnapping, or rape and murder of a child, is a very different thing from the killing in a drunken fight outside a pub, or a battered wife who loses it after years of maltreatments and kills the abusive husband. Most of us agree that the punishment for these should not be the same - and locking up the latter for life seems, to most people, excessive. But that is what he law says - the judge has no choice if the defendant is found guilty of murder. Therefore they system has evolves to let the Parole Board let the battered mother out after three or four years, the drunk after ten or twelve, the kidnapper after thirty and the rapist never. Of course, they are always on parole - of they ever look like being a danger, they can be recalled to prison. And there are about a dozen men in prison for whom it has been decided that life really does mean life.

I think it would be better to allow the judge to make the decisions, and to allow one of the options be life-meaning-life, while lesser options were available for less severe forms of murder. But the tablods would then scream about "being soft on killers", when it would just be regularaising what actually happens.

You would think that life means for the rest of your life. I have often wondered why they even bother giving someone life in prison if they are able to get out.

... and also the judge can make a recommendation that life does in fact mean life.

If you are sentenced to life, you are given a tariff that you have to serve before you are to be condered for release. The base is 15 years and will be calculated by the judge according to any mitigating/aggravating factors. You won't get out of prison beofre that tariff is up.

Anyone serving less than 4 years on a determinate sentence will be released at the halfway point. It's not for good behaviour though, it's just that they serve half the sentence in prison and half in the community (still subject to being recalled to custody if they reoffend or their risk increases).

Anyone serving more than 4 years or on a indeterminate sentence will need to apply for parole and prove they have reduced their risk or undertaken offending behaviour work.

No,15 years is a long time to think about what one has done,and if they have worked through their problems through good behaviour they should be released.Just how much punishment should be morally put upon someone!

Depends on what you were locked up for. I think they do this because sometimes people change and can become productive members of society. If they were only given a certain number of years to serve and they served them they would be released no matter if they had changed or not (maybe have even gotten worse). With a life sentence a person's attitude/behavior can be taken into consideration and if it is such that they warrant a second chance, they may get it. But if they have not contributed to their own rehabilitation, they can be kept for the full life term if necessary. I could have it wrong, but makes sense to me.

I think it should mean complete life in prison.

Who knows, what if the person is putting on an act by faking being good? Then they could get out of jail, and do the same crime again.

Yes it should, but in the uk the justice system is more for the criminals than the victims.

Yes I agree. Today Peter Tobin got 30 years - which he will have to serve in full - for raping, murdering, dissecting and burying a 15 year old girl. He is already serving 21 years for another similar murder committed 3 years ago and is being investigated for more than 40 other murders. He will be locked up until he dies but he is the exception rather than the rule in this country, sad to say. I would say "Bring back the death penalty" but unfortunately there are well documented cases of innocent people serving years for murders they were subsequently found not to have committed. Who would want that on their conscience? Not me.

well they check and den wen dey think its safe to let u out they do but then you are kept under close watch nearly all the time just in case :P

Yes but the justice system in the Uk stinks, in fact its a joke, a youth robbed and beat a man as he left a pub one night, the victim was found dead by passers by, and the youth when caught was given 3 years as he didnt intend to kill him>. Apparently thats supposed to make it okay then is it?