Already given more than 200 years in prison, doctor Larry Nassar has now also been jailed for another 40 to 125 years for molesting young gymnasts
Franklin Zimring, a professor of law at the University of California, has spoken about the symbolic, theatrical function of extending a prison term beyond a person's lifetime.
Professor Zimring cited the case of Bernie Madoff, for example,
"In sentencing Bernie Madoff [to 150 years for fraud], what the judge wants to be telling him is 'you are really a bad person.' And for this purpose, the number of years can be endlessly elastic."
It has also been said that for victims of crime and their loved ones there is nothing problematic about a very long sentence. Indeed, a sentence that increases with each guilty charge is a way of telling each victim that they matter.
Certain long sentences are an alternative to the death penalty. For instance, Dudley Wayne Kyzer is serving two life terms plus 10,000 years for a triple murder he committed in the 1970s.
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