Is "life without parole" in the USA actually a whole life until death sentence? Here in the UK I don't think it is, though I do think it would be preferable to have a name mean what it says. (ie if you want to give 20 years then call it that)
The European Convention on Human Rights article 3 is being interpreted as declaring life imprisonment (without chance of parole) inhumane[1]. Assuming the UK is a signatory (fairly sure they are), it would be prohibited there, though it's up to the European Court on Human Rights to rule (iirc in Luxembourg) and then your own country to care about executing that judgement against itself. Russia is also a signatory to the ECHR which I find really interesting.
There is also a right to privacy (article 8) and it doesn't discriminate whether the person happens to be an EU citizen. There are so many things in this convention, that seem like really basic human rights, that are just not a thing in the USA. Boggles my mind that we just accept all of that without blinking and continue treating it like an example, or that people (even people living in Europe!) want to move there[2].
[1] I happened to be reading this page in Dutch on it https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenslange_gevangenisstraf so that's my source unfortunately. Feel free to ask for a translation if you want to know more and translation engines are not making sense or something
Yes. The U.S. does not have a maximum term of incarceration the way some other countries do. Life without parole is generally used as an alternative to capital punishment here.
