I have heard a few things recently on how criminals are sentenced and the impact on families, particularly children, and secondly on the prison population.
It has been reported that Prison Governors are wanting to put a stop on short sentences as they fill up prisons. This is largely a dig at magistrates as we are the ones giving the short sentences (for info, a JP can only Jail for max 6 months per offence, up to a total of 12 months for more than one offence).
It is also reported that parents going to prison has a bad effect on children, if the father goes to prison then there are issues of poverty and if it’s the mother then child welfare is a huge issue.
At the top-level, we (JP’s and to a lesser extent Judges) are being blamed for both issues. We should be thinking about the effect on families and also prison population when we sentence. To both of these arguments, I say that the blame is being put int he wrong place. We are only sentencing what we have in front of us according to the guidelines and the factors of the case. At the end of the day, the blame has to be the criminals. If they were not offending so seriously, then we would not be jailing them!!!!
The issue of families and children is a bit deeper. firstly there is the view that we should not be jailing mother at all, of which I say, not on your Nellie. Yes, the child will be affected, but if the mother has done something “so serious” then what sort of a mother is she anyway!
If there is a better way of supporting those not in prison then that will be money well spent, as there is evidence that children (particularly boys) following the parental example. So not only would it help the family at the time, but also help reducing crime. But lets not go blaming this on the Justice system or the Government, this is the fault of the criminal who has destroyed their family, if they had not committed the crime, there would not be the problem!!!!
Filed under: Law, Magistrate | Tagged: Family, jail, JP, Law, Magistrates, Prison, sentencing
