if its a seriously violent offence which will physicaly or emotionally scar the victim or their family for a significant time or results in death (even manslaughter) then yes. I’m not talking about minor fisticuffs or a pub scuffle though (which would get a caution anyway these days). Not even the fairly minor incident that led to this thread.

its cases of serious violence its often a life sentence for the victims after all (even if they aren’t killed)

people don’t only remember the bad things – but it means that someone needs to put in more effort if they are genuinely remorseful. if they don’t change and they reoffend then they just go back to jail for longer, perhaps a actual whole life tarrif.

for some people it is.

in these prison is only there to keep those scum away from society, as state-sanctioned execution is no longer acceptable or cost-effective in a modern society.

I know people do violent crimes as “one offs”, in those cases they often are self-defence and the courts usually sentence accordingly.

OTOH there are those who are calculated, know exactly what they are doing and prison is no deterrent to them unless its a very long tarriff (i,e they will be fit for the old peoples home if they come out).

Even then there would be a duty of to the staff of their care facility that they were made aware of their previous. Some people, whatever the circumstances, won’t feel that “its a fair cop gov, I will do my time like a man”. They might play lip service to it in Court (especially if the brief says it will reduce their tarrif) but they will want revenge when outside.

A 60 year old man can still swing a punch or use a walking stick as a weapon (in fact many blokes go in Norwich for the first time at age 60+ usually due to killing a family member in a domestic).

Consider the Steve wrights of this world, that man will never show any remorse and may be guilty of many other crimes. He also cost the town I live in its freedom, trust and community spirit (strangers used to talk to one another in Ipswich, now they don’t since December 2006).