by TheJusticeofthePeace @ 14.
Oct. 2010. – 10:19:30
There`s a fashion for everything and not just how much of a woman`s legs should be visible when she`s wearing a skirt. There is fashion in thinking. What`s that phrase?...........think the unthinkable………it sums up nicely in tweet form going against that which is the accepted norm. And then there is the Daily Mail. Is there any other publication the name of which immediately conjures up so accurate an impression of what one is going to find inside? Perhaps Country Life or The Lady but they`re hardly in the same league and who gives a damn anyway.
Sentencing is as much about fashion as is dress design. Fashion could be said to follow public opinion as much as to be a leader of opinion. You pays your money and takes your choice. There are as many who want to be out of step with their contemporaries for some activities as there are conformists. Today`s Mail online carries the headline “Send fewer thugs to jail and save £20m a year, judges and JPs told”. This journalistic twaddle refers to the recent consultation on Assault published by the Sentencing Council. The document is 58 pages and although I have not read every word whether or not I agree with the proposals is currently neither here nor there. Nowhere did I have the impression from the document that justifies the Mail`s emotional headline. In fact that tenor of headline and its implications was robustly dealt with by Judge Darwell-Smith whom I quoted on October 11th as follows at the swearing in of new Justices of the Peace in Bristol
“You should no more pass a custodial sentence because the Daily Mail thinks you should, or a non-custodial sentence because the Ministry of Justice tells you the prisons are full.”
Indeed unpaid J.P.s who are not beholden to any government for their standard of living are in a unique position to voice their objections to any proposed changes. Perhaps that is why I have a distinct feeling that in the long term irrespective of party many in the seats of power would not be sorry if District Judges became the main arbiters of summary justice in this country.
The manipulation of public opinion is as old as civilisation. There are countless valid reasons for avoiding sending offenders to prison and equally potent motives for incarcerating them. Unfortunately the current debate is being driven by the weight of government attempting to slice the justice system salami down to the rind and pretend it`s still enough to serve all at the table.
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