The Scottish Government

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CHAPTER FOUR: MANDATORY LIFE SENTENCE PRISONERS

Characteristics of mandatory life sentence prisoners

Offenders aged between 18 and 21 at the time of conviction for murder are sentenced to detention for life and those aged over 21 at the time of conviction receive a sentence of life imprisonment. Offenders who are aged less than 18 at the time of committing murder receive a sentence of detention Without Limit of Time. Up until commencement of provisions in the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act 1997 the cases of offenders who murdered when under the age of 18 were handled in exactly the same way as the cases of offenders sentenced to detention for life or mandatory life imprisonment. Hence, information on all offenders convicted of murder has been analysed together regardless of whether the offender was aged under or over 18 years at the time of conviction.

This section of the report summarises the characteristics of and release data on 887 mandatory life sentence prisoners (873 males and 14 females) and 129 murderers sentenced to detention without limit of time (127 males and 2 females) who were convicted and sentenced between 1 January 1965 and 31 December 1996 and whose records were held by the Parole and Miscarriages Review Division of The Scottish Office Home Department. Because the cases of all murderers were handled in the same way irrespective of age at the time of the research, the sample are referred to throughout as mandatory life sentence prisoners. Figure 1 provides a breakdown of the sample by year of sentence.

FIGURE 1: Year of Sentence of Mandatory Life Sentence Prisoners

As can be seen, the number of mandatory life sentences imposed each year ranged from a 'low' of 14 in 1965 to a high of 61 in 1996. The number of cases arising each year has tended to fluctuate between 20 and 40. In each of the 6 years from 1991 to 1996, however, there has been an increase in the number of cases arising [ Following completion of the fieldwork the provisional figure for 1997 became available showing an apparent fall in the number of mandatory life sentences imposed to fewer than 40.] .

Figure 2 shows the age of the mandatory life sentence prisoners at the time of conviction. More than half of the sample (55%) fell within a 10 year age band of 15 to 24 years and almost three quarters of the sample (74%) were aged less than 30. Fewer than one fifth of the sample (16%) were aged 35 or over at the time of conviction.

FIGURE 2: Age of Mandatory Life Sentence Prisoners at Time of Conviction

Figure 3 shows the distribution of age at time of conviction of those offenders who were aged less than 30 when they were convicted of murder. The figure shows that the peak age of conviction for murder was 18 years.

FIGURE 3: Age at Conviction of Mandatory Life Sentence Prisoners (Under 30s)

Status of mandatory life sentence prisoners

On 31 December 1996 the status of the 1016 mandatory life sentence prisoners in the sample was as follows:

• 494 were in custody having never been released;
• 415 were in the community on life licence;
• 40 were in custody following revocation of life licence;
• 3 were awaiting the Parole Board's decision on immediate re-release following revocation of licence;
• 1 had been recalled to custody but had not been apprehended;
• 1 had received a Queen's Pardon (after serving 6 years and 7 months); and,
• 62 were deceased.

Consideration of cases by the Preliminary Review Committee (PRC)

Since its introduction in 1980, mandatory life sentence prisoners have had their cases reviewed by the PRC after serving approximately 4 years in custody (or 2 years in the case of those aged under 18 at the time of the murder). At the time of the research, 540 of the mandatory lifers in the sample had had their cases reviewed by the PRC. Of the 476 mandatory lifers whose cases had not been reviewed by the PRC, 265 were sentenced too long ago to have had their cases considered in this way (the first mandatory lifer to have his case considered by the PRC had been sentenced in March 1974); 5 were transferred to Scotland from another jurisdiction too late in their sentence to be considered by the PRC; 10 died before their cases could be considered by the Committee; 195 had not had their cases reviewed by the PRC because they had served less than 4 years and one case had been considered by the Parole Board on compassionate grounds without having been referred to the PRC. (Data on progress towards release are also presented on a flow diagram at Annex C.)

Of those 540 cases which had been considered by the PRC, 471 had been referred on to the Parole Board for consideration of release (not all of whom would have been considered by the Board at the time of the study) and 69 had not been given a date at which formal review by the Parole Board should commence and their cases would therefore be referred back to the PRC at another date. Table 20 shows the number of times each of the 471 referred cases had been considered by the PRC.

TABLE 20: Number of Reviews by the Preliminary Review Committee

Review by the Parole Board

By 31 December 1996, 653 of the mandatory life sentence prisoners in the sample had had their cases reviewed by the Parole Board. For those whose case had been reviewed by the Board, the average length of time between date of sentence and first review was 7 years and 11 months.

The Parole Board had recommended the release of 517 mandatory lifers in the sample (2 of whom were released on compassionate grounds). Of the remaining 136 cases reviewed by the Parole Board, 132 had not been recommended for release at the time of the research and 4 prisoners had died before being given a release date. The number of times the cases in the sample were considered by the Board (excluding those who died) is shown in Table 21. As can be seen, the vast majority of mandatory life sentence prisoners are released after between one and 3 reviews by the Parole Board. Just 20% of those released had more than 3 reviews before being released, although a further 58 mandatory lifers had had more than 3 reviews and had still not been recommended for release.

TABLE 21: Number of Reviews by the Parole Board

Release on licence

On release from custody, mandatory lifers (as is the case with discretionary lifers) remain on 'life licence' for the rest their lives. They are subject to supervision by a social work department until the Secretary of State, after consultation with the Parole Board decides that this is no longer necessary and all are liable to recall at any time should their behaviour give the Parole Board or the Secretary of State cause for concern.

Although only 415 of the mandatory lifers in the sample were on licence at commencement of the fieldwork, 491 (481 males and 10 females) had been released from custody at some time; of whom: 32 had since died; 30 were in custody following their first recall; 7 following their second recall; 3 following their third recall; one following fourth recall and 2 were in custody following fifth recall. One lifer had been recalled but had not been apprehended at the time of the study. Four hundred and sixty eight of the mandatory lifers in the sample had never been released from their life sentence; 26 had been given a release date but had not reached it at the time of the research [ Mandatory life sentence prisoners can be given a release date up to 2 years in advance of that date. These release dates are provisional and cases can be referred back to the Parole Board if there is an adverse development during the pre-release programme. In these circumstances, the Board may decide to recommend to the Secretary of State deferral of the prisoner's provisional release date or withdraw it's recommendation in favour of release altogether.] ; 30 had died before they were released and one received a Queen's Pardon. The time between date of sentence and first release of the 491 life sentence prisoners who had been released is shown in Table 22. The 26 mandatory lifers who had been given a provisional release date but had not reached it at the time of the study were excluded from this analysis as the actual date of their release may not have been the same as the date anticipated at the time of the study.

TABLE 22: Time Between Date of Sentence and First Release for Mandatory Lifers

The average length of time served between sentence and first release by the 4941 mandatory lifers who had actually been released was 11 years and one month. If the 26 prisoners who had been given a provisional release date at the time of the study are included in the analysis, the average length of time served increases very slightly to 11 years and 2 months. In its 1989 report the Nathan Committee noted that there was a 'common belief that "life" means nine years' and this was a view supported by JUSTICE in its evidence to the Committee (House of Lords, 1989 pgs. 36 and 176). The figures presented in Table 22 clearly demonstrate that in Scotland the length of time served by mandatory life sentence prisoners now generally exceeds 8 or 9 years, reflecting an increase in the time served since the 1980's (see Table 23). Fewer than half (41%) of the prisoners in the sample were released after having served 10 years or less and the majority of those who were were released over 20 years ago during the 1970's. Indeed, over a quarter of the mandatory lifers in the sample had served in excess of the average sentence of 11 years.

Sixty seven of the 494 released mandatory lifers were aged less that 18 at the time of conviction and had been sentenced to detention without limit of time. The length of time served by this group of mandatory lifers ranged from 6 years and 5 months to 17 years; the average length of time served was 10 years and 5 months. Figure 4 shows that more than half (57%) of those sentenced to detention without limit of time had served between 9 years one month and 11 years at the time of release; almost 90% had served between 8 years one month and 13 years.

FIGURE 4: Length of Time Served by Released Offenders Sentenced to Detention Without Limit of Time

Table 23 shows that the length of time between sentence and release has been increasing over recent years. This suggests that, at least in Scotland, the Nathan Committee's observation that life was thought to mean 9 years had ceased to be accurate by the time it was made (in 1989). The average length of time served by those released in 1996 was 13 years 2 months. Actual time served ranged from 9 years 11 months to 24 years.

TABLE 23: Average Length of Time Spent in Custody to First Release by Mandatory Lifers

* Over half (N=10) of those released in 1996 had served between 11 years one month and 14 years; 5 had served between 9 years one month and 11 years; and, 3 had served between 17 years one month and 24 years.

The average figure for the length of time served by released mandatory life sentence prisoners provides little indication of the length of time served by those mandatory lifers who have not yet been released. As Table 24 shows, in some cases this period of time is considerable - 28% of those without a release date had served in excess of 10 years.

TABLE 24: Time Served by Mandatory Lifers Without a Release Date and Still Alive

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