What is a criminal justice system? The collection of agencies including, but not limited to, the police, the courts, the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office which are involved in the detection and prevention of crime, the prosecution of people accused of committing crimes, the conviction and sentencing of those found guilty. What is the purpose of a CJS? According to various sources it is:-
to deliver justice for all, by convicting and punishing the guilty and helping them to stop offending, while protecting the innocent.
to deliver an efficient, effective, accountable and fair justice process for the public.
a set of government institutions and systems that aim to apprehend, prosecute, punish, and rehabilitate criminal offenders.
The website of the Ministry of Justice has the following as its purpose:-"Protect the public from serious offenders and improve the safety and security of our prisons, reduce reoffending and deliver swift access to justice".
And the obvious supplementary question is whether these definitions or aspirations have been, are or ever will be achieved at least by present circumstances. As far as the purpose, operation and performance of magistrates courts, to use an appropriate idiom, the jury is still out. It seems that there are four driving forces leading to this conclusion; the pursuit of "diversity" as a symbol of local courts, the mirage of court being local, the appearance of defendants driven to law breaking by their addictions to drugs and or alcohol and the sheer logical necessity of limiting the numbers sentenced to immediate custody. All that has changed in the last quarter century. Local justice, when there were indeed courts sufficient in number to allow anyone travelling time of well under an hour from home by public transport to arrive at court is now just a memory. District Judges(MC) are not appointed owing to their local connections. The pursuit of "diversity" in the magistracy seems to be the be all and end all.
The first Jewish magistrate was appointed in 1847. Female magistrates have been appointed since Ada Summers (1861-1944) was the first woman magistrate to sit in court on 31 December 1919, one week after The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act became law. Although she was not named officially as one of the first seven women magistrates, as Mayor of Stalybridge she became a magistrate ex officio. Eric Irons on 15 May 1962 made history by becoming the first black Justice of the Peace. Now a statement of a JP applicant includes his/her religious affiliation if any. Although denials are the common response there can be little doubt that quotas are in the minds of advisory committees when considering whom to appoint as Justices of the Peace.
300 magistrates courts in 2010 have been halved in number with many rural courts in Wales and the north of England now being up to three hours distant by public transport from their "local communities". The refusal to acknowledge the benefits to individuals and society of the decriminalisation of drugs, at least cannabis, by offering users a legal supply route to drugs of certified origin and composition is muddle headed and prejudiced. Considering that roughly 40% of inmates who are incarcerated for violent offences were under the influence of alcohol during the time of their crime and it also costs the NHS and wider society at least £25 billion a year such limited thinking affects all of us. The purposeful refusal to construct sufficient prison accommodation when simultaneously increasing sentences is not careless; it is beyond parody.
And so what do we have today? A new magistrate who writes with apparent pride, " I work full time, so I sit the minimum sittings and then pick up additional sittings during my annual leave or on a bank holiday." [my bold]. The most frequent reason for magistrates to be struck off is owing to their being unable and/or unwilling to complete even their minimum sittings. Any senior JP will attest to the fact that real competence, not the nodding through as currently happens, requires many more hours on the bench than 13 days annually. The obsessions at the Magistrates Association, a unique body which is unable owing to its charter, to actually represent its members, since its appointment of a new CEO, have been that word again diversity and leading the judicial field in its application of woke to all that it can possible encumber. Its latest folly is to ban the use of ‘Policemen’ and ‘Chairmen’ in Woke Language Guide. Notwithstanding that the M.A. wants to increase the expenses allowances for magistrates. This is another excessively wordy supposed investigation which might have some researchers in Petty France looking for this in the archive: a report two decades ago which has application today. In essence inter alia it states that if District Judges sat alone without a legal advisor the court costs would be equal to or even less than the costs of using lay benches and there would be greater efficiency with a quicker throughput of cases.
And so to the reality of what actually happens in a magistrates court. This month was published The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 policy summary. This needs to be understood in conjunction with the Sentencing Guideline: Common assault / Racially or religiously aggravated common assault/ Common assault on emergency worker. The reality is that there is a proliferation of civil orders being the outcome of many cases brought to the magistrates courts with the breach thereof being the subsequent criminal offence. It began with ASBOs and has begotten many offspring this offender being an example of one handed a criminal behaviour order. Earlier this month some of the legal "great and do good" opined that shoplifters; thieves by any other name, should be spared jail. I offer only a current example from the thousands of thefts committed weekly courtesy of DorsetLive.
The Council of Europe states that to have democratic security a reality, there must be namely: an efficient and independent judiciary, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association, the functioning of democratic institutions and inclusive society and democratic citizenship. Readers will have their own opinion whether or not our CJS helps to that end.
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