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Theresa May: death by incarceration Theresa May: death by incarceration
(4 months later)
Posturing by a previous home secretary over the death of a policeman eventually led to the abolition of the mandatory death penalty for murder. David Maxwell-Fyfe's refusal to pardon Derek Bentley led to an injustice so grave that something had to give, though not before the state had strangled a mentally disabled teen who never fired a shot. Yesterday another home secretary, desperate to make peace with the bobbies who booed her last year, proposed a new mandatory sentence for killing a cop, which might be described as death by incarceration. The idea of automatic life without any possibility of parole brought Theresa May a brief moment of favour at the Police Federation, but as policy it is objectionable in principle and will also prove ineffective in practice.Posturing by a previous home secretary over the death of a policeman eventually led to the abolition of the mandatory death penalty for murder. David Maxwell-Fyfe's refusal to pardon Derek Bentley led to an injustice so grave that something had to give, though not before the state had strangled a mentally disabled teen who never fired a shot. Yesterday another home secretary, desperate to make peace with the bobbies who booed her last year, proposed a new mandatory sentence for killing a cop, which might be described as death by incarceration. The idea of automatic life without any possibility of parole brought Theresa May a brief moment of favour at the Police Federation, but as policy it is objectionable in principle and will also prove ineffective in practice.
The assumption that taking the life of a police officer is always worse than taking any other life does not fit well with Robert Peel's ideal: that the police are the public, and the public the police. But for anyone with any feeling for penal reform, there is always a deeper objection to throwing away the key, and with it the possibility of redemption. Public safety might turn out to require that some of the few dozen Britons already on "whole life" orders do indeed remain in prison until the end of their days; the objectionable thing is for the state to close its eyes in advance to all evidence about whether a criminal remains a threat, by binding its own hands against ever reviewing whether the interminable detention remains necessary. Barring a handful of cases in the Netherlands, no other European state deems it necessary to snuff out all hope of release. Even Pakistan and China retain some provision for review of the longest jail terms. The home secretary should reflect on the sort of company she wants England and Wales to keep.The assumption that taking the life of a police officer is always worse than taking any other life does not fit well with Robert Peel's ideal: that the police are the public, and the public the police. But for anyone with any feeling for penal reform, there is always a deeper objection to throwing away the key, and with it the possibility of redemption. Public safety might turn out to require that some of the few dozen Britons already on "whole life" orders do indeed remain in prison until the end of their days; the objectionable thing is for the state to close its eyes in advance to all evidence about whether a criminal remains a threat, by binding its own hands against ever reviewing whether the interminable detention remains necessary. Barring a handful of cases in the Netherlands, no other European state deems it necessary to snuff out all hope of release. Even Pakistan and China retain some provision for review of the longest jail terms. The home secretary should reflect on the sort of company she wants England and Wales to keep.
From the angry impulse to put retribution ahead of all other concerns, practical problems inexorably flow. One whole-life prisoner, Douglas Vinter, wrote, after being involved with a stabbing on the inside, that he "said to the governor … just give me another life sentence for my collection. They don't mean anything any more." That chillingly sums it up. Do away all with hope and, in an important sense, you also do away with fear. Even before the question of how prisons can manage lags in such circumstances, there is the question of how a judge can do justice with tied hands. That Bentley conviction under joint enterprise – for supposedly encouraging his younger accomplice, Christopher Craig, to "let him have it" – demonstrates that moral culpability is not always the same, even among those found technically guilty of murdering a policeman.From the angry impulse to put retribution ahead of all other concerns, practical problems inexorably flow. One whole-life prisoner, Douglas Vinter, wrote, after being involved with a stabbing on the inside, that he "said to the governor … just give me another life sentence for my collection. They don't mean anything any more." That chillingly sums it up. Do away all with hope and, in an important sense, you also do away with fear. Even before the question of how prisons can manage lags in such circumstances, there is the question of how a judge can do justice with tied hands. That Bentley conviction under joint enterprise – for supposedly encouraging his younger accomplice, Christopher Craig, to "let him have it" – demonstrates that moral culpability is not always the same, even among those found technically guilty of murdering a policeman.
Supposedly exceptional sentences for exceptional crimes create an inflation that cascades throughout the prison system, as has been amply demonstrated over the last 20 years, during which Britain's prison population has doubled, rising irrespective of occasional political pledges to curb use of short prison spells for petty offences. The effect reaches its repugnant conclusion in the US, where approaching 50,000 now pass their days at the state's expense without any distant hope of release, crossing off dates on the calendar until the grim reaper arrives. This barbarous state of affairs should appal an administration that was once proud to call itself liberal conservative, and had initially seemed determined to get a grip on mass incarceration.Supposedly exceptional sentences for exceptional crimes create an inflation that cascades throughout the prison system, as has been amply demonstrated over the last 20 years, during which Britain's prison population has doubled, rising irrespective of occasional political pledges to curb use of short prison spells for petty offences. The effect reaches its repugnant conclusion in the US, where approaching 50,000 now pass their days at the state's expense without any distant hope of release, crossing off dates on the calendar until the grim reaper arrives. This barbarous state of affairs should appal an administration that was once proud to call itself liberal conservative, and had initially seemed determined to get a grip on mass incarceration.
No longer, however, and the shame is all the greater for the Lib Dems, who previously made it a point of pride to challenge unthinking penal populism: in previous manifestos they bravely swore to scrap all mandatory sentences. Acquiescence in a technically flawed economic policy is one thing, but by going along with Mrs May's illiberal wheeze they invite searching questions about what on earth their party is for. Labour says the detail will be important, a half-nod to the ongoing case in Strasbourg that could yet rule against unconditional whole-life detention, but on the principle, it is ultimately equally craven. Like so many American lifers, reason and reform are left utterly abandoned by Westminster.No longer, however, and the shame is all the greater for the Lib Dems, who previously made it a point of pride to challenge unthinking penal populism: in previous manifestos they bravely swore to scrap all mandatory sentences. Acquiescence in a technically flawed economic policy is one thing, but by going along with Mrs May's illiberal wheeze they invite searching questions about what on earth their party is for. Labour says the detail will be important, a half-nod to the ongoing case in Strasbourg that could yet rule against unconditional whole-life detention, but on the principle, it is ultimately equally craven. Like so many American lifers, reason and reform are left utterly abandoned by Westminster.
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