Australia plans to
sentence drivers to life in prison
if they kill someone
by driving while speeding or holding a phone, or while drunk, etc.
If the goal is to discourage drivers from doing those dangerous
things, this approach is big on harshness but low on effectiveness.
Only a tiny fraction of people that today drive speeding, holding a
phone, or drunk, will cause actual harm and be punished for it. The
rest tell themselves, "Nothing will go wrong", so they don't worry
about what the penalty would be if something did go wrong.
The the effective way to discourage those dangerous behaviors is to
apply a small punishment more often. If 10% of the people who did one
of these things on any given day were sentenced to one night in jail,
almost all of them would soon learn not to do it any more. Even 1%
might be enough, since everyone would know people who were caught.