A PIPE DREAM

When learned folk talk or write about "courts" more often or not the reference is to a court at the higher level of our jurisdiction system as opposed to the lower.  A casual observer might opine that that is not surprising; the higher the level of jurisdiction the higher the level of prosecution or dispute when considering civil cases.  For those very reasons tradition has made available a ladder to indicate the legal and/or intellectual prowess of those who keep warm the benches in these superior courts.  We might then surmise that whilst a crown court judge in army terms is a major, a High Court judge is a colonel, an Appeal Court judge a lieutenant general and a judge of the Supreme Court a field marshall.  Where does that leave the district judge and the lay magistrate? I would suggest the former is a sergeant and the latter a corporal who`s considered by his commanding officer to be capable of taking on the rank of sergeant.  Those who appear before the lower court might be thought of as privates  some of whom have disobeyed orders.  They differ from real offenders in that their employer is also their judge and that employer wants to have them back at work as soon as possible whilst simultaneously ensuring that any punishment is seen as a deterrent to others who might err. In the real world the armed forces, to use the vernacular, have skin in the judicial and legal game.  Not so our world.  Those who formulate the criminal justice system are as distant from their final product as can be.  After all Secretaries of Defence, Education, Health are at risk of trauma, children with poor arithmetic or language abilities and suffering poor health.  They all have skin in the game but not judges or magistrates. They don`t fear being removed from office by the electorate; only by failing in a personal or professional capacity.  And with a slight leap in imagination these sentencers are far removed from the results of  application of sentences the design of which is increasingly able to be formulated by AI with little human input.  Indeed a glance through the Sentencing Guidelines for eg assault requires but a modicum of original thought. It can be argued that the outcomes of sentencing exercises depend more on what`s inputted than what`s expected or hoped for as an output. 

Every day at magistrates courts there are examples of  the self imposed limitations in the system.  Indecent exposure and similar offences have been shown to be high risk factors for reoffending at a higher level of indecency or worse. This offender surely needs to be restricted in a secure establishment until his deviant tendencies can be considered cured.  If a positive outcome is unobtainable the public must be protected; their importance and safety outweighs the freedom of such an individual to roam until further convictions. 

Arson is a very serious offence but it is classified as an either way offence meaning it can be tried in the magistrates or crown court the lower court having a maximum sentence of only six months custody.  

In my time on the bench I never sat on such a matter.  Indeed I would suggest that few of my colleagues past or present have but at Kidderminster Magistrates Court such a case was heard.  Apparently considered as a Category 3 offence the offender is still free to continue his daily life.  

When six consecutive four week jail terms are handed out to an offender the seriousness becomes apparent but not so apparent that immediate custody was deemed suitable.  That get out of jail free card was played also by the bench of Kidderminster Magistrates Court in the form of a suspended custodial sentence.  

Finally an offender of no fixed abode requested an immediate prison sentence, a request  with which the court complied. 

It is common knowledge that there has been, is and will officially soon be a directive from the MOJ regarding the availability of custodial sentences for magistrates courts.  As things stand now there is often little or no adequate outcome for many offenders.  Around 3%-4% historically have received immediate custody orders and for those sentenced in the community, a blanket term with no meaning if ever there was one,  a decimated probation service is generally all that is available to attempt rehabilitation by, inter alia, doing good works in the community.  For others there are so called banning orders, courses in anger management, domestic abuse and other therapies.  But in all these cases the offender is free to mix with the population. I have long advocated that an interim form of deprivation of freedom combined with professional therapists and trainers would fulfil that purpose.  In Dickens` time it was  called the workhouse {search box will identify previous posts on that word}  and fulfilled the local needs as were considered then socially beneficial both to the receivers and the public. 

It is common sense and economically very sensible that protection of the public should be combined with remedial therapies to prevent re-offending.  Until there is some fundamental way in which we govern ourselves I am realistic enough to be aware that such innovation will remain a pipe dream.