As we've reported, Lucy Letby refusing to appear for her sentencing today has reignited calls to make this mandatory.
Rishi Sunak said this morning the government is planning to change the law. Opposition parties agree.
But the issue lies in the practicalities, not the politics. And there are lots of questions about how this would work.
Firstly, if laws are toughened to punish people more if they don't attend - will people facing life sentences be deterred by the threat of a few more months potentially?
Secondly, there's the physical force required to drag someone from prison to the courts, and then potentially from the courts up lots of winding stairs to the docks.
This is currently possible if force is considered "reasonable" - but prison governors, and later judges, must make that call.
Then there is the issue of whether, if you drag someone to court against their will, will they try sabotage it by screaming and shouting and drowning out the judge?
Or shout abuse at grieving families or victims? Or produce an insult by simply sticking fingers in their ears?
There's potentially nothing stopping a sentence being streamed into someone's cell - but does this have the same impact if they can't be addressed directly? And again, they could just cover their ears.
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