furnessvale wrote:
I have never read the daily wail in my life but I did serve as a
police officer for more than 20 years. I never saw anyone get the
maximum for any offence (mandatory life for murder excepted). Some
of
the offences I dealt with were truly horrific and I often wondered
just what a villain had to do to get the maximum. Then of course
remission, release on licence etc kicks in to reduce things even
more.


Is there any conclusive evidence that longer sentences result in a
lower crime rate? Countries in mainland Europe that have low crime
rates seem to have much shorter prison sentences than the UK and a
greater reliance on community sentences.

On the other hand, the USA seems to lock people up for much longer,
with a crime rate that - gun crime apart - is much lower than the
UK's. That would seem to support your view, but whether we could
afford the considerably higher cost of prisons is moot.