NEW: Are we tough enough on killers?
Just 6 per cent of the public think murder sentences are getting tougher.
In reality, they have jumped 50 per cent in two decades. Why is public opinion so out of step?
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🔗 https://www.thetimes.com/article/6b42e0b4-da99-4b89-ba6f-f7d151eb3dde?shareToken=96d869a3948e22612b9a4f075f87209c
Just 6 per cent of the public think murder sentences are getting tougher.
In reality, they have jumped 50 per cent in two decades. Why is public opinion so out of step?
1/6
🔗 https://www.thetimes.com/article/6b42e0b4-da99-4b89-ba6f-f7d151eb3dde?shareToken=96d869a3948e22612b9a4f075f87209c
Comments
2. Murder shouldn't allow for good behavior early release, any time a murderer gets put on early release the papers make a fuss.
3. Make prisons feel like a proper punishment, too cosy just now
Life does mean life (albeit with part of a sentence being served on licence)
Lifers are not released early for good behaviour. They serve their minimum terms and are released only if they are judged no risk to the public.
Prisons are horrible, unpleasant places
2. Murder sentences already don’t allow for early release for good behaviour.
3. What about prisons in England do you think is cozy?
2. Someone literally got released after 7 years of their sentence of murder
3. Compare it to every othe prison in the world. I personally people who have went to jail and said it was a "pisstake". If they weren't cosy, then reoffending wouldn't happen as much
Most of us, however, are remarkably wrong…
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Today, it is closer to 19 years.
And it is set to get longer. Murderer sentences have risen even more sharply, from 14 to 21 years
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But when it comes to long sentences generally, the UK hands out more 10+ year sentences than almost every European nation
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4.5/6
One suggestion is that average sentence lengths are just that - averages. Because of circumstances, between 2010-18 a tenth of murderers were out of prison in under ten years. These cases attract attention!
5/6
Whatever the reason, Britain is in an inflation cycle. Sentences are going up, but people don’t think they are, so want to raise further
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https://www.thetimes.com/article/6b42e0b4-da99-4b89-ba6f-f7d151eb3dde?shareToken=96d869a3948e22612b9a4f075f87209c
A: Tabloids.
To be fair, it's the answer to most questions about why the population is ill-informed and what's wrong with the country.
Those who want to reform prisoners so those that can, the majority, be released safely back into the public, releasing them before they are ready is really bad
The public are generally less inclined to believe the system is tough enough on anything. 24 hour news cycles which produce less facts and more reaction play a part in that.
I simply think most of us are confused in a world manipulated by fear.