Get the inside track on the big stories from Manchester courts with our weekly newsletter Life sentences are usually reserved for those who take a life.
But, in some cases, offenders have committed crimes of such seriousness, and are considered to pose such a risk to the public, that they are jailed for life - even though they haven't killed.
A number of offenders of this rank have appeared in Manchester courts in recent years. Life sentences usually carry a minimum term, but they last the entirety of an offender's days.
If they re-offend, for example, following release, they can be swiftly locked back up again. Here, the Manchester Evening News looks back at the cases of a violent inmate, a terrorist sympathiser, and two, nationally
Read more on manchestereveningnews.co.uk