UK criminal justice reform has been debated in the country over the last four years. In 2006, the UK Law Commission [official website] published a report proposing a breakdown of the sentencing scheme for murder [text, PDF] into separate categories with different requirements and punishments. Months later, a UK chief justice spoke out against mandatory sentencing [JURIST report], citing concern over the Law Commission's report and suggesting that the mandatory life sentence for murder be abandoned and that a new broad offense of "homicide" be created which would allow judges wide discretion in sentencing for different scenarios of that according to circumstances. However, previous attempts at reform have met with strong opposition [JURIST report] from British judges, who have called such plans "kneejerk reactions" to sentencing scandals. Proponents of the reforms urge officials to limit prison sentences to only the most dangerous criminals in order to help the government deal with prison overcrowding [BBC backgrounder; Guardian backgrounder] that has reached crisis proportions [JURIST report].