ARE MET POLICE GOING BACK TO THE FUTURE?

 28. Jun. 2010. – 08:45:30 

Scotland Yard in an apparent return to old fashioned practices is causing consternation inside and outside the ranks by flagging up its intention to use the apprentice system for future recruitment and dispensing with or downgrading its use of Hendon training establishment for recruits. Part time special constables who work limited hours monthly will be encouraged to join the Met after a year or eighteen months on the beat. Learning on the job was an accepted way into many jobs until the 1960s or 1970s. Lawyers, chartered accountants, architects, nurses, joiners, plumbers, electricians and many others could enter their trade or profession by a combination of on the job training and intensive classroom teaching. Some even paid for the privilege. Perhaps in going back to the future the Met for once is leading changes in employment practice? 

ALCOHOL SALES TO UNDER AGE DRINKERS

 24. Jun. 2010. – 12:24:05 

Depending on which statistics are perused drugs and alcohol are the root cause of "much", "many", "most" or even "overwhelming" instances of criminality. Leaving aside terminology and applying some old fashioned common sense young people under the influence of alcohol are a common sight on the streets in every village, town and city of this country. Since we`re not living in 19th century Ireland or the mountains of West Virginia we can be sure that the home brewed stuff is not under discussion and with the price of supermarket loss leaders uncle Patrick`s home brewed poteen or cousin Ethan`s moonshine couldn`t compete on price anyway. 

One would assume that local councils` enforcement teams would do their utmost to stem the purchase by under 18s of alcohol. After all the same councils have to cope with the results of the drunken behaviour of their tax payers` children. When charges are laid against those who sell drink to juveniles the accused appear at Magistrates` Courts. If they are convicted by pleading guilty or being found guilty after trial they are usually fined. One would expect thousands of such cases to have been prosecuted and millions of pounds of fines to have been levied. After all excessive and early drinking is a major medical problem as well as a problem for the criminal justice system. But one could be mistaken.

A parliamentary answer by James Brokenshire (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Home Office; Old Bexley and Sidcup, Conservative) on June 17th revealed amongst other facts that in 2008 in the criminal justice areas of Bedfordshire, Devon & Cornwall, Humberside and Warwickshire there was not one instance of a fine being imposed for this offence. In the whole of England & Wales in only 326 cases were fines imposed. These fines ranged in average from £152 to £1,050. These figures are shocking beyond belief but my own experience bears them out. It is well over a year.....perhaps two since I sat on such a case and my sitting rate is higher than the average JP`s. 

Every case prosecuted by councils is paid for by Council Tax and topped up by grants from central government as is all local expenditure. Even the mathematically illiterate can appreciate the term "cost effectiveness" even if its underlying premises are numerical gobblygook. Spend eg £1 to stop a drunken youth causing eg £20 of damage to him/hersef, others and the environment must make sense economically, medically and socially. Oh were it so simple! 

FOREIGN PRISONS & FOREIGN PRISONERS

 

23. Jun. 2010. – 14:54:09

Five accused men lost their appeal today against extradition to Greece to stand trial. Amongst other reasons they submitted were the primitive conditions of jails in Greece.

By contrast since the signing of an agreement with Viet Nam in 2008 allowing the repatriation of Vietnamese prisoners to their homeland not one such national has volunteered to serve out his/her sentence in Viet Nam. Apparently they would be treated too harshly in very poor conditions for that option to have been taken.

There seems to me a similarity in treatment for matters within or without the European Union. Doctors from within do not have to show proficiency in English to practise here. That loophole has cost the life of at least one man overdosed by a medic from Germany. The European arrest warrant is another seemingly iniquitous result of E.U. "harmonisation".

MAGISTRATES` ASSOCIATION NEEDS TO BE PRO-ACTIVE

 22. Jun. 2010. – 16:18:05 

In previous comments I have sympathised with the difficulties the Magistrates` Association experiences when the magistracy is presented with critical comment from virtually all quarters police, prison governors, probation service etc etc. With a very limited budget senior staff and current officers do their best but it is just not good enough. There has, as far as I am aware, been no contradictory press release on the assertion that short sentences should be abolished; not to be replaced by longer sentences but by community sentences. Today the news is that 150 of 350 magistrates` courts are liable to be closed in the current economic tsunami of reduced funding. It appears that in Birmingham lawyers are not unhappy that a new magistrates` court building has been cancelled. 

Presumably the Magistrates` Association had or should have had prior knowledge of such news/events. Immediate rebuttal if appropriate or reasoned comment should be forthcoming ASAP. If magistrates do not make their own case accurately and promptly in scenarios such as described who will make their case? Currently each member pays £33.50 subs. I would urge the Association to convene an extraordinary general meeting with one topic on the agenda..........subscription increase immediately to £40 the additional income to employ a professional journalist or PR consultant whose job would be to tell government and people why magistrates are important to the criminal justice system.........in other words to justify our existence preferably in our current form. There are too many who would not be sorry to say goodbye to us. 

ADDENDUM
The following has just been published on the Association`s website:

There are unsubstantiated rumours at the moment about magistrates' courts closures - see today's Daily Telegraph. John Thornhill, the Association's chairman has a meeting with the Minister for Justice, Jonathan Djanogly tomorrow morning (23 June). In the meantime the following quote has been issued to the Press Association and BBC:

Responding to various rumours about court closures John Thornhill, chairman of the Magistrates’ Association said, “With the current financial crisis it is not surprising that the Ministry of Justice is looking to reduce costs by closing courts. In some cases this can be justified because buildings are no longer fit for purpose or are not being used sufficiently. However the principles of community justice delivered by ordinary citizens for local people must, and can be, preserved. “ 

MAGISTRATES NEED LAWYERS` SUPPORT TO RETAIN FUNCTION

 

21. Jun. 2010. – 12:27:00

When major participants within the criminal justice system issue press releases on contentious issues one can be sure that in the Darwinian tradition they are seeking to survive elements which they fear could threaten their existences. Of course it is highly unlikely that eg police forces or the probation service are going to cease being but it is not unlikely that dark forces buried deep within the sewers of Whitehall are plotting the extinction of an organisation which this year marks its 650th year of allowing the sovereign`s law to apply to the people of England and Wales.

The magistrate at age 650 is a far cry from his ancestor. He or she is as near an example of a people`s judge in a people`s court providing people`s justice without there being a Robspierre or a Lenin within executing distance. He is part of a truly unique system of judgement by one`s peers which is unlike any other system in this world.

In November The Met Police Commissioner criticised magistrates for the continual offending of burglars whilst on bail. This was repeated by the commander of police in Hounslow on 6th February this year. Press statements of this nature can only be part of a co-ordinated political position to undermine magistrates` courts where the default position of offenders pleading not guilty is for them to be remanded on bail until trial.

Today the Prison Governors' Association and the National Association of Probation Officers have released statements in The Independent that short term jail sentences ie up to six months, should be abolished. The arguments put forward are self serving citing cost in particular. Each group is concerned with enhancement of its own position and their joint statement is nothing short of yet another attempt to devalue the three person magistrates` bench to speed the departure from our courts of its Justices of the Peace replacing them with salaried District Judges who already, to the disquiet of many, sit alone as judge and jury on trials.

By the very fact of their being unpaid volunteers albeit highly and expensively trained, JPs and their representative body The Magistrates` Association have traditionally been reticent about blowing their own vuvuzelas especially when the Association operates with a shoestring income of about only £1 million and a staff of eight employees. It will be a sad day if English Justices are reduced to takers of oaths and town hall decorations and hung out to dry. Be certain the death of the magistracy as we know it will be a bad day for all who value local justice for local people. Members of the legal profession personally and organisationally and others who are sympathetic to this view should make public their support for the English Magistracy in its present form.

CROWN COURT SITTINGS

. Jun. 2010. – 13:19:47 

 It had been a while since I had sat on an appeal at Crown Court. Outside the legal profession very few people are aware that appeals against verdict and/or sentence at a Magistrates` Court are heard in front of a judge assisted by two justices.

I had been telephoned by a court official the day previously, apologies were given for the short notice but owing to a colleague having had an accident I was asked if I could fill in at 12.00 noon the following day. And so arriving at the impressive red brick building I pressed the button at the gated judges` car park entrance and a uniformed security officer directed me to a space. 

My J.P. colleague from another bench was already in the retiring room familiarising herself with the details of the forthcoming case. Shortly after we had made our introductions a court usher advised us that the judge in the appeal would join us in a few minutes. And so I followed my colleague and his Honour into court.

The courts in my home bench are not cramped but court number eight was twice the size and without a jury on its two benches and with nobody in the public gallery the feeling of spaciousness was magnified. Wigged counsels` deference to our judge was certainly more than is usually accorded a bench of JPs by those appearing in front of us. During lunch which itself was a treat compared with my usual fare, a homemade sandwich, I mentioned some of the more crass remarks which have been directed to benches on which I have been chairman. The more outrageous in his Honour`s opinion warranted a complaint to the bar council. The six other judges present were extremely welcoming and a very relaxing exchange of legal banter and opinion was an added bonus. 

The case itself concerned an assault by a young man on two members of a neighbouring family with which his family had been at loggerheads for some years. He had previously, we discovered later, been tried in his absence. The three parties were the only witnesses and bad character applications and admissions revealed all had been previously convicted of offences ranging from theft to G.B.H. On retiring to consider our verdict we were all of the opinion that we could not possibly be sure of what happened on the day and the appeal against conviction was upheld. Unlike our procedure at court when we leave a written record of our conclusions and reasons on the court file his Honour did not input his reasons to his laptop as he had done taking his notes of evidence but the Crown Court being a court of record had his words recorded on tape. So justice was done although nobody was there to see it done. 

Having been reminded just how stimulating sitting on an appeal can be I have made a note to offer myself for some more sittings in the coming half year. 

DRINK/DRIVING LIMIT LOWERED TO 10mg ALCOHOL/100ml BLOOD:A BRIEF ARGUMENT IN FAVOUR

 17. Jun. 2010. – 11:54:24 

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, Sir Peter North has recommended cutting the drink-drive limit from 80mg to 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. Drink driving and all that surrounds the subject has been a hot topic since 1967 when the breathalyser was introduced to Britain`s drivers. 

The effects of alcohol on the human body are widely known. I remember as a student being asked by a lecturer to drink with others two pints of strong beer in the name of science. Our reactions to various stimuli were measured before and at various times after that morning`s unexpected imbibing. The results were very clear even if our brains were not......our confidence was increased owing to inhibitions being lowered and our reaction times to aural and visual stimuli were similarly markedly reduced. These events stay with you.

In 1966 there were 9,590 convictions in England and Wales for drink/driving offences and 5,035 in Scotland. The peak year for convictions England and Wales was 1988 at 105,027 with the peak number of 11,871 in Scotland being seen in 1980. 2006 saw 83,975 convictions in England and Wales and in Scotland 6,998 in 2007. There is an interesting paper by Richard Allsop Centre for Transport Studies University College London. Drink driving causes around 6% of road casualties in the U.K. and 17% of deaths and over a lifetime almost everybody will have a friend or relative killed or injured by this scourge. I personally have had two people close to me in these statistics. 

Drink driving and related offences where no injury has been caused are matters for Magistrates` Courts. There is rarely a valid defence and it is well known that disqualification from driving for at least one year plus fine and costs is the likely punishment for a first offence and increases to imprisonment for repeat offenders. So the potential consequences of drinking and driving are also well known. My personal experience is that many who come before us when providing their mitigation say that they did not consider what they drank would have taken them over the limit. And this in my opinion is the nub of the argument regarding the new proposed level of 50mg alcohol/100 ml blood.

The current level tempts drinkers to judge their “allowed” alcohol intake which of course has variable effects on individuals depending on eg health, weight, sex, metabolic rate etc etc. Reduction to 50mg/100ml will not remove that temptation to have literally “one and only one for the road”. And that one could take him/her over the limit.

If the permitted limit were only 10mg/100ml the message and science would be as clear as crystal; one glass of wine or half a pint is too much and the result is arrest and disqualification. But, and it is a BIG but, having a level which is not zero would allow for any residual alcohol from the night before to have been eliminated except in the most serious cases, usually alcoholics, and those who had a genuine belief they were legal to drive would usually escape penalty unlike the circumstances of a zero level. 

Whether the level will be reduced and by how much is a matter for the Coalition. North believes a zero level would be unacceptable to public opinion. The banning of smoking in planes, trains, pubs and restaurants was also thought unacceptable notwithstanding some of the extreme opinions regarding company vehicles and individuals` own homes. There will always be road casualties. Those where alcohol plays a part are inexcusable. Change when and if it comes should be sooner rather than later.