Britain considering allowing very long prison terms

The British government is considering imposing very long prison sentences as a work-around to a European court ruling banning whole-life terms. Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday some prisoners are so dangerous or their crimes so horrendous they should not be released, the Daily Telegraph reported. "There are some people who commit such dreadful crimes that they should be sentenced to prison and life should mean life, and whatever the European Court has said we must put in place arrangements to make sure that should continue," he said. Most people convicted of murder in England and Wales currently receive an automatic life sentence with a minimum that must be served before they can be released. A few have received whole-life terms with 49 now imprisoned with no release date. Some U.S. states now impose very long sentences. Cameron's Conservative Party may propose giving the British Supreme Court the final authority in human rights cases instead of the European Court of Human Rights.