PRT response to government review on sentencing commission
Whether a sentencing commission, or a beefed-up guidance council, this body must command the confidence of ministers, judges and the public. To be effective it should get greater consistency in sentencing to stop sentence inflation, it should advise on the impact on the prison population of new laws and it must engage with the public.
In response to the publication today of the findings of the government-commissioned review on the merits of establishing a sentencing commission for England and Wales, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:
Whether a sentencing commission, or a beefed-up guidance council, this body must command the confidence of ministers, judges and the public. To be effective it should get greater consistency in sentencing to stop sentence inflation, it should advise on the impact on the prison population of new laws and it must engage with the public.
No one is saying that there shouldn’t be prison places always available to the courts to sentence serious and violent criminals, but it is equally absurd to say that we should carry on spending billions on criminal justice policy without worrying about value for money or effectiveness.
With the prison population over 83,000 and with less than 100 spare prison places across the 142 prisons in England and Wales last week, this report is timely. The report’s findings and how the government responds to them may hold the key to ending the prison capacity crisis and getting some sense into sentencing.
Notes
[1] On 7 July 2008, the Prison Reform Trust published an independent King’s College London report calling for a sentencing commission to offer judges clearer and simpler guidance to prevent ’sentence inflation’; to advise ministers of the impact on the prison population of new laws; and to ensure better public understanding of sentencing policy and practice. The report can be downloaded below.
[pub link – sentencing commission]
