Don’t make me laugh!

I can’t say I’m surprised by the intention in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill currently before Parliament to repeal the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to increase magistrates sentencing powers to 12 months, so much for Cameron’s tough talk on sentencing, but I’m appalled at the proposals to restrict the powers of the courts to remand in custody those whom the court pre-supposes are unlikely to receive a prison sentence.

What pray will happen to the prolific shoplifter, who commits offences never quite serious enough to warrant imprisonment but nevertheless will, as soon as he/she is released on bail, go on another spree of minor offending?
Or what about the common assault cases, now downgraded by the government’s poodle the Sentencing Council so that custody is unlikely ever to be an option, but where the court has substantial grounds for believing the defendant will, if granted bail, interfere with witnesses and so pervert the course of justice?

It is all too common in cases of petty violence, especially those involving Domestic Violence, for the victim to fear intimidation and/or further violence from the defendant and where only a custodial remand can properly protect the victim, even where the current guidelines effectively prevent the courts from passing a prison sentence for the actual offence.

And then there are those for whom conditional bail, bail with conditions of residence, reporting or non-communication either with co-defendants or witnesses, is routinely ignored. The courts only sanction for someone who will not comply with their bail conditions is to remand them in custody but even this will now disappear if:
“it appears to the justice of the peace that there is no real
prospect that the person will be sentenced to a custodial
sentence in the proceedings”.

These proposals are at best a ‘bail-bandit’s’ charter and at worst will lead to even more ineffective trials due to witness intimidation and therefore a denial of justice.

Punishment of offenders? – Don’t make me laugh!

Hard talk = soft justice

So the rioters in London and elsewhere will, according to David Cameron, ‘face the full weight of the law’! That must set the 11 and 12 year olds quaking in their designer trainers, like the 12 year old given a nine month referral order for burglary who told photographers outside court to ‘#+*#*@ off’, although with a mother who told reporters to ‘watch your #@**’#ing face’ what can one expect?
And what of the 11 year old girl, who travelled 16 miles specifically to join in the mayhem, which she said ‘made her happy’, and where did her parents think she was while she was engaged in hurling stones at shop windows? Another 9 month referral order for a girl who ‘wasn’t bothered’ because she ‘never thought we were going to get caught’.

Isn’t it high time to remove the restrictions on naming, and splashing the photographs, of these lawless creatures, and their dysfunctional parents, all over the newspapers so we, their teachers and prospective employers can all see them for what they are?

Might some good come out of all this, or will it just become another exercise in hand-wringing, ‘community initiatives’ and the pouring of further money down the plug-hole of ‘urban regeneration’?
Mark Reckless MP of the Commons Home Affairs committee thinks that parliament, not that ultimate soft-touch quango the Sentencing Council, should set sentences and the MP Rodger Gale called for an immediate increase in magistrates sentencing powers, but I should live so long!

Of course, and predictably, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice is reported to have said ‘If you are old enough to commit these crimes you are old enough to face the punishment’. This is the same Ministry of (in)Justice who restricts ‘punishment’ of feral children to a referral order, meaning they have to talk to a probation officer!!!!!!!
Well tell that to Judge Tim Devas who reminded all those dismayed at soft sentences;

‘If there are any criticisms of sentences handed down by the courts, if you want anyone to blame, then go and speak to the government. Do not blame the judges or the magistrates who do their jobs professionally and abide by the guidelines set down’.

All David Cameron’s hard talk, and the Ministry of Justice’s idea of punishment, is just so much propaganda while ever the courts are shackled by, and forced to adhere to, sentencing guidelines which neither reflect the public’s concept of justice or attempt to punish the offender.

Liberal Do-Gooders

The Institute for Public Policy Research (not another one!) is calling for jail sentences of less than six months to be replaced with community punishments.
They claim that short sentences are ‘expensive’ and ‘ineffective’.
Their director, Nick Pearce, is reported as saying that ‘low-level crime …… must be taken seriously’.
However, not it would seem, seriously enough to impose the type of sentence that society expects for those prolific, repeat offenders who have had more community ‘punishments’ than they’ve had hot dinners and which have consistently failed to bring about any change in their offending behaviour.

Spare me the liberal clap-trap which says that community ‘punishments’ are a magic wand which miraculously transforms hardened criminals into paragons of virtue, because they don’t! There is little, if any, difference in re-offending rates between those given them and those sent to prison, and at least prison is a real punishment, which is and should be the end result of criminal behaviour.

Saintly Grandmothers

I see there is another spate of hand-wringing over the grandmother given a tagged curfew order for causing unnecessary suffering to her pet dog.
Why is it grandmothers are deemed incapably of criminal activity?

It is reported that she is humiliated at being treated like a common criminal – well isn’t she?

And here I must take issue with Ann Widdecombe, writing in the Daily Express, who questions what good such a curfew will do. Well Ms Widdecombe, it's not supposed to 'do any good', it's supposed to be (shock - horror) a PUNISHMENT!