I think back to when the death penalty was abolished in 1965 and how we were told at the time that the alternative would be that "Life sentences would in future mean life!"It has been revealed this week that in all British prisons, there are just 35 killers who must serve the 'whole of life tariff' (not including Peter Sutcliffe, of course!)
The number of murderers jailed in the last dozen years runs well into five figures.
Strangely enough, the last time I had access to the statistics - the then current total of 'lifers' in British prisons was just 3,600.
Wrap your mind around these figures and the question is whether surprise or horror hits you first!
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