38. Memorandum submitted by
John Samuels QC
First, I attach a note on Sentencer Supervision
[not printed] which I supplied to the Corston Review, and which
is reproduced in paragraph 5.22 of the Report which I received
only today. The fact that this was angled towards vulnerable women
is, of course, because that was the focus of Jean Corston's review:
it is equally applicable to all defendants.
Second, I suggest that it is worth emphasising
that in the current climate of over-stretched prisons, and the
unavailability of any kind of post-sentence supervision for those
who receive a short determinate sentence of 12 months or less,
the pointlessness of such a sentence is manifest: the problems
which led to the relevant offending, whether of alcohol, drugs,
domestic violence, anger management or simply that of a mild to
moderate personality disorder, will inevitably remain unaddressed;
while the potentially stabilising influence of home, family and
employment (if any) will be disrupted: hence bad people will in
all likelihood be made worse, and within this cohort of offenders
re-offending will proliferate.
Third, and as a consequence of my second point,
active consideration should be given to the statutory abolition
of the Magistrates' Courts' jurisdiction to impose a custodial
sentence. Of course there are and will remain cases which deserve
and can properly receive an immediate short determinate custodial
sentence: but if that can only be imposed in the Crown Court,
and a court of summary jurisdiction is obliged to commit such
cases as in their view warrant an immediate (or even a suspended)
custodial sentence to the Crown Court, my belief is that an immediate
and beneficial reduction in the overall level of such sentences
would be felt. If it were to be argued that a Magistrates' Court
which lost its powers of immediate imprisonment would lose credibility
as an enforcement court, my response is to say that the Crown
Court would be anxious to reflect in appropriate cases the Magistrates'
wish to imprison; but overall the level of such use of immediate
custody would tend to fall.
Finally there are a few sprouting green shoots
of optimism, in the shape of Restorative Justice; Community Justice;
and the Drug Court and Problem-solving court approach, which is
gradually gaining a foothold. Happily I am introducing, via my
membership of the Board of the International Association of Drug
Treatment Courts, an overview of these developments in England
& Wales to the Washington DC Conference of the National Association
of Drug Court Practitioners in June.
14 March 2007
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