None so blind

So the Howard League for Penal Reform wants to remove from Magistrates the power to imprison, no surprise there then.
They are quoted as saying we “overuse our sentencing powers” and their proposals would “reduce short term sentences” and force Magistrates to “work more closely with community projects and programmes”.
Such tosh could only come from an organisation so blinkered in its view that it is determined to avoid reality.
Magistrates view imprisonment as a sentence of last resort, and use community sentences far more than they do jail, but where criminals refuse to comply with these community sentences, an unfortunately far too common occurrence, the court must resort to it's ultimate sanction. Indeed, without the implied threat of jail it is likely that very few community sentences would be completed at all but to this uncomfortable fact the Howard League, in their ivory tower, turns a blind eye.
Truly, there are none so blind as they that do not want to see.