Twenty-five years since the government introduced "truth in sentencing" reforms with the aim of ensuring "life meant life", criticism of the indeterminate nature of a life sentence continues, particularly for those offenders who face several decades of incarceration without hope or expectation of gaining release.

With life expectancy for men more than 70 years of age, a life sentence for an offender now aged in their 20s or 30s is for all practical purposes one of 40 or 50 years.

Double murderer Corey Alan Breen, now 28, is facing a life sentence. He embarked on a terrifying crime spree that included carjacking, multiple assaults of his friends and bystanders and the stabbing murder of his father Paul Breen and stepmother Felicia Crawford at their home in Killarney Vale, on the Central Coast, on March 29, 2013.

After his arrest, Breen told police he was on his way to kill his mother Debbie Breen and her boyfriend. He then planned to kill his brother Luke and sister Ashleigh, but he was intercepted by police when the car he was driving broke down.

This month Acting Supreme Court Justice Jane Mathews will decide whether Breen will join a small but infamous group of men sentenced to life imprisonment aged 30 or younger since truth in sentencing reforms came into force in 1990.

Andrew Peter Garforth
Pleaded guilty to the abduction, sexual assault and murder of Ebony Simpson, 9, at Bargo in August 1992. The court found it was in the worst category of murder and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole aged 29 in July 1993. He unsuccessfully appealed his sentence to the High Court in 1994. His prisoner status was downgraded from A2 to B in July, a decision immediately reversed by Corrective Services Minister David Elliott.

Mark Valera

"The Butcher of Wollongong"

Previously known as Mark van Krevel, in June 1998 he fatally bashed shopkeeper David O'Hearn, 59, in his Albion Park home in a random attack. He mutilated and dismembered the body and wrote the word Satan on a mirror with the victim's blood.Two weeks later he bashed and strangled alleged paedophile and former Wollongong mayor Frank Arkell, 68. Sentenced to two life sentences without parole in December 2000, aged 21.

Vester Fernando
Vester and his cousin Brendan sexually assaulted and murdered nurse Sandra Hoare after she left work at Walgett Hospital in December 1994. They were attempting to steal her car and used a machete during the horrific attack. Brendan was 27 and Vester 26 when sentenced to life imprisonment in 1997. Two years later, Vester fatally stabbed Brendan in Lithgow Jail.

Richard William Leonard
"The bow and arrow butcher"
In 1994 Leonard fired an arrow into the heart of Stephen Dempsey, killed him then dismembered his body and kept it in a freezer. Months later he and girlfriend Denise Shipley fatally stabbed taxi driver Ezzedine Bahmad at Collaroy Plateau. In 1997 aged 24 he was sentenced to life imprisonment on both charges of murder.

Michael Kanaan
"DK's boys".
Known as "Doc", Kanaan came from a stable Lebanese Christian family. He became a member of DK's boys, a gang set up by Danny Karam to sell cocaine in Kings Cross in the late 1990s. He shot three men unprovoked outside the Five Dock Hotel in July 1998, killing Michael Hurle and Adam Wright and injuring Ronald Singleton. In December 1998 he and other gang members executed Karam in a hail of bullets with plans to take over the drug business. In 1999 he was arrested following a shoot-out with police in White City. In 2001 aged 28 he was given two life sentences with the court finding he has no prospects of rehabilitation. In 2002 he got a third life sentence for Karam's murder. He is confined to a wheelchair.

Matthew James Harris
"Wagga Wagga serial killer".
Harris strangled stroke patient Peter Wennerbom, 62, in Wennerbom's flat in Wagga Wagga in October 1998. A fortnight later he murdered Yvonne Ford, a 33-year-old woman who had a mild intellectual handicap he had befriended, by strangulation in her bath tub. Weeks later he strangled his neighbour Ronald Galvin and disposed of his body in nearby Uranquinty. In December 1999 he pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment with a 25-year non parole period for each count of murder. The Crown successfully appealed and in December 2000 Harris, 31, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Daniel Leslie Miles
"Killed on the run".
Miles was serving an 18-year jail sentence for the 1990 murder of his childhood sweetheart, Donna Newland, 16, a crime he committed at age 18. While in jail he befriended a sex worker, Yolande Michael, 29. In late July 1999 he escaped from jail and spent the night with her. The following day he found her in bed with another man at her home in Sefton and he fatally stabbed her. In July 2002 the Crown successfully appealed his 19-year minimum, 25-year maximum sentence and he was sentenced to life.

Sef Gonzales
"Family killer"
The Sydney student brutally stabbed, bashed and strangled his father Teddy Gonzales, 46, mother Mary-Loiva Josephine, 43, and sister Clodine, 18, in their North Ryde home in July 2001. He attempted to make it look like a racially motivated attack by spray painting the words "F--- off Asians KKK" on a wall in the house. Ten days before he had attempted to murder his mother by poisoning. The court heard he feared his parents would take away his car and other privileges due to his poor university results. He also wished to be the sole beneficiary of his parents' estate. In May 2004 he was found guilty of three counts of murder. The day after his 24th birthday he was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences without parole. In November 2007 his appeal against conviction and sentence was dismissed. Gonzales maintains his innocence.

Crespin Adanguidi
West African man Adanguidi, 27, murdered the wife and children of his Chinese gay lover Raymond Shen at Rockdale, on February 1, 2003. He pleaded not guilty on the grounds of mental illness. But a jury convicted him of bludgeoning Shiquin Zhu, 55, and shooting Pin Shen, 27, and Christy Bo Shen, 23. The previous night he attacked Shen, tied him up and held him hostage at his Maroubra unit, demanding $200,000. In 2005 aged 27 he was sentenced to three life sentences without the possibility of parole. An appeal in 2006 was dismissed.

Adnan Darwiche, Naseam El-Zeyat, Ramzi Aouad
In November 2006 Adnan "Eddie" Darwiche, 30, Naseam "Erdt" El-Zayat, 26, and Ramzi "Fidel" Aouad, 25, were each sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for a series of murders carried out in a continuing dispute between three families of Lebanese descent in south-west Sydney. The Darwiche, Razzak and Fadha family were involved in rival drug dealing operations. In October 2003 the men fired at a Greenacre house using SKS rifles and pistols, killing Ziad "Ziggy" Razzak and Mervat "Melissa" Nemra. El-Zeyat and Aouad were also given life sentences for executing Ahmed Fahda at a Punchbowl service station the same month. However their conviction was quashed in 2011. A re-trial did not go ahead.

smh.com.au