I see that Ken Clarke, the Justice Secretary (there’s a joke in there somewhere) is being hammered again, this time by senior members of the judiciary, over his plans to cut jail terms in half for those criminals who plead guilty.
The example given by some of the most senior judges in the land is that someone sentenced to three years imprisonment will serve a maximum of only nine months; yes that’s not a misprint – nine months! Three years cut in half is eighteen months and automatic release after serving half the sentence means out to commit further offences in just nine months, less any time spent on remand.
Where a persistent offender, and/or ‘bail bandit’, is remanded in custody awaiting trial or sentence, which could easily be two months, that time will be taken off his sentence, thus the nine months comes down to seven, or even less if made subject to a home curfew.
So a sentence for, say, repeated aggravated burglary, which merits a three year jail sentence, in reality amounts to a little over one sixth of that.
Ken Clarke calls this justice (told you there was a joke in this didn’t I?) and the Ministry of Justice (another joke?) says this measure will reduce crime!
Well if you believe that then there must be fairies at the bottom of your garden.
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