CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

MR. ROY JENKINS, the Home Secretary, went a long way to dispel a deep-rooted misconception about life sentences when he spoke at Cambridge last Saturday. Among those serving such terms, he said, were some ruthless and
savage killers.
"Let me make it clear that these dangerous men can have no expectation of release after a time like nine years.
"They will have to stay in prison for a good deal longer. And there may even be some who are likely always to be a menace to society and whom it may never be possible to release. For these a life sentence will mean exactly what it says."
Two days after the Home Secretary had spoken Harry Roberts, John Duddy and John Witney were each given life imprisonment for their part in killing three London policemen. Mr. Justice Glyn-Jones, passing sentence, stated that in his view they must, in any case, whatever the views of future Home Secretaries, serve at least 30 years. All will be in their 60's if they stay in prison for this length of time.
Few will quarrel with the sentiments expressed by Mr. Jenkins or Mr. Justice Glyn-Jones. The murders in which Roberts, Duddy and Witney were implicated were of a particularly brutish and cold-blooded nature. No-one with any compassion relishes the thought of any man, no matter how revolting his crime, spending 30 years behind bars, but in this instance the severity of sentence is surely just.
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Now that the death penalty has been abolished for capital murder the necessity for sentences to act as a deterrent is stronger than ever. Many criminals and potential gunmen will be shaken by the outcome of this murder trial and think twice before setting out on any armed adventure that could end in killing.
There are no statistics to support this, but the logic of fear needs no figures to prove its case. Most of us are cowards when the price of either heroism or crime is high.