I've lived in a couple of countries in Europe including the UK and the idea that the system in Britain is generally humane is pretty naive.

The Justice System in Britain is to a very large extent a tool to Keep People In Their Proper Place and like the Political system and other Power systems over there, the end result of uninterrupted centuries of maybe the most classist mindset in the whole of Europe and one of the lowest levels of social mobility in the continent.

Absolutelly, if you are wealthy or well connected the system will be very "humane" for you and if you're Middle Class you'll probably be alright. Poor people ... well ... as long as they only harm other poor people (or foreigners) they might be alright (hence the phenomenon of Hooliganism), otherwise the book will be thrown at them.

There really is quite the extraordinary "some people are inherently superior to other people" mindset going on in there and that's reflected in the uneveness of the treatment given to people by the Justice System and the exceedingly cold and extremelly punitive sentencing reserved for "lesser" people.

The style of violence of the various British Power Systems reflects the style of violence of the Posh Elites: nothing so crude as physical violence involving guns, rather complex rule structures designed with enough flexibility to on one side let the "right people" through and on the other crush the "wrong people" in their machinery, as well as goon-like police force compose of people from a working class background who see themselves as above the common working class and can thus often behave with that very special kind of cruel obedience found in those who both think they're now better than the place from where they came, yet fear they might fall back if they don't execute their orders with gusto.

[...] an oddly Dickensian nightmare in a country that's generally much more humane, though still struggling with a weird sort of muscularly classist paternalism

You can add to that a very unhealthy admiration for the USA

This feels worse somehow. With the death penalty there is a finality to sentencing, these people are stuck on an ever speeding treadmill of despair chasing hope like it’s a carrot on a string. Even if they get out, due to the conditionality of their original sentence, they can be thrown right back in with the flick of a pen. Like Sisyphus to his boulder these people are bound to sadness perpetually stuck in a state of fear.

^ fewer steps

The death penalty usually requires silly things like trials and burdens of evidence. With this one simple trick you get straight to the "good" part.

More like loophole death penalty:

• These people are pretty much convicted to die in jail but since it's not officially Death Penalty or even a Life Sentence, the standard of evidence and possibilities of appeal are much lower, the oversight from external actors (such as the Press or Human Rights Organisations) is comparativelly non-existent, as are side effects with international partners (for example, extradition from many European countries to Britain would be much harder or even impossible if they had the Death Penalty or even a Life Sentence).

This is exactly the kind of way English Politicians and the English Upper Class create rules and pass measures to do pretty cruel things behind a façade which is almost the opposite.

Just ask the Irish.

It's the death penalty minus the execution.

Why? Cruelty isn't exclusive to those 3

Specious stated justification aside, they are probably trying to incentivise rehab and good behavior while in prison.

Decent idea on its face, but it's all in the execution (ouch)

Yeah, because there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Indefinite prison sentences means the prisoner has nothing to look forward to once they realize the parole board isn’t going to willingly let them out. At least with absurdly high sentences (like 25 years,) you at least know you’ll be released eventually. Even if the parole board doesn’t agree, you’ll still get out. But when the parole board is your only hope, that means suicide is your only other form of escape.

Yeah, it's hard to understand. If they'd written sentenced to 23 months instead of jailed, it would be a lot clearer. As it is, it sounds like he was in jail for 23 months and then "held" somewhere else.