Politics of Sentencing
on going disbutes between british judges and the government are not unsual with labour.
from his judgements, you could assume that the high court judge Mr Justice Collins, head of the high courts judicial review panel had a persaonal vendetta against tyhe home office, he ruled against them so office. Bunkett certainly thought so, and was told promptly to behave hinmself by the then Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine after criticising the judge publically.
today, the government/judiciary disputes have moved on from the Home Office's immigration policy, and terrorism laws, to Sentencing.
labour has a poor poor track record when it comes to the prison service, and it didn't exactly endear themselves to either prison or probation officers when it forcibly merged the two services in 2004 into the national offender management service. a strike prison officers is also not unlikely before the end of 2006.
however, recently a crown court judge was publically criticised by the Home Secretary John Reid for giving a life sentence to a child rapist, but setting the minimum term to be served at 5 years.
Reid said such a sentence was criminal itself, and said he would see to it the sentence was appealed.
Blair, rather foolishly backed him up...
seems today however, its all backfired on them, as Blairs handpicked Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer defends the judge, saying the sentence was the one the judge had to give according to sentencing guidelines. he called for an immediate review of the governments sentencing policy and told them to stop using the judiciary as whipping boys for failures of policy.
to add insult to injury, the former, and very outspoken HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Sir David Ramsbotham told BBC Twos Daily Politics show "Frankly, i just wish he'd (blair) shut up, frankly" he went on to urge blair to halt policy changes which caused more problems than they solved.
"One of the problems that there has been recently is announcement after announcement from the prime minister that he's going to do this and that and the other, and more people are going to come in [to jail] for longer. Unfortunately all that's doing is crowding the system even more that it is, and that doesn't just apply to the prison service. It also applies to the probation service, because the probation service is trying to supervise over a quarter of a million people, and they just simply haven't got the numbers or the resources."
in the UK, naturally, sentencing policy isn't set by judges, its set by legislation, and by the Sentencing Guidelines Council, who pass guidelines on to the Court of Appeal, who issue them in cases, thus giving them legal precedent.
if we continue to bind our judges over with mandatory minimum sentences, manfdatory maximum sentences, mandatory discounts off sentence, mandatory periods to be served, mandatory parole time etc etc the judge loses all discretion, all ability to actually pass a sentence
to then turn round and actually dare to criticise a judge for passing a poor and leniant sentence that he is legally bound to give is absolutely out of order.
the current government has made a total mess of the entire legal system since they came to power, calling on the one hand for more communitty sentences to be used, whilst on the other increasing sentences. the judiciary can't win, and the government have only themselves to blame for policy thats not only as ludicrous as it is stupid, but also criminally negligent if it allows for someone on a life sentence to be let out on praole fater a mere 5 years.
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Originally Posted by the Black Prince
