IS OPTIMISM ENOUGH TO SEE US THROUGH?

Today 14th November 2023 our Prime Minister in emphasising  that his government was all set for "change" appointed a previous prime minister as Foreign Secretary; a prime minister who had resigned from parliament a few months after the result of  his ill conceived  ineptitude and dismal failure of his "referendum policy".  Perhaps this single appointment sums up all the failings of the last 13 years.  I have a picture in my head of a boy scout on an overnight expedition in self sufficiency being unable  to light a campfire with a simple sparking kit and asks the scoutmaster for a box of matches.   And so it is with magistrates courts.  

For many decades offenders at magistrates courts with few exceptions have been subject to legislation which limited sentencing powers to a maximum of six months custody. The Magistrates Association, a body ignored by increasing numbers of magistrates,  has repeatedly pressed for that limit to be increased although no historic papers on that topic are available on its website which, for non members, is carefully edited to avoid controversy.  But as with many aspects of all our lives the Covid epidemic changed all that. The ruthless pruning of court buildings from 2010  [300 to 150] and the ignoring of the situation in that year when it was predicted that almost half of magistrates would be retired within a decade threw all previous assumptions on prison capacity into turmoil.  There is an old adage, what goes around comes around.  Another that seems suitably appropriate is the Conservative Party`s chickens have come home to roost.  We are now on the 11th Secretary of State for Justice/Lord Chancellor since 2010 proof if it were needed that with the confusion, obfuscation and crass intellectual failings in Petty France  the law `n order banner of the Tory Party is well and truly shredded.  In an attempt to repair that once upon a time headline policy of safeguarding the nation`s streets from crime the delayed realisation that there is simply no prison space remaining and no time before a general election to build more prison accommodation the government has decided to march magistrates courts sentencing powers not just up the sentencing hill and then march them down again but to march them underground.  On 2 May 2022, the Government gave Magistrates the power to impose a sentence of up to 12-months' custody for a single triable either way offence (Section 224(1A) of the Sentencing Act 2020 inserted by section 13(1)(b) of the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022). {my bold} The government justification for this increased sentencing limit is available here.   The Magistrates Association was quick to respond to the extended sentencing powers of May 2022.  "We advocated for an extension to magistrates’ sentencing powers for more than a decade to help speed up justice for complainants and defendants. It’s anticipated that 1,700 days of crown court time will be freed up every year now that magistrates can hear more cases." 

On 22nd March this year the well respected House of Commons Justice Committee wrote to the then Lord Chancellor.  A week later magistrates courts were marched down again.  The Sentencing Act 2020 (Magistrates' Court Sentencing Powers) (Amendment) Regulations 2023, authorised by Mr Mike Freer, amended section 224(1A)(b) of the Sentencing Act 2020, reducing the maximum sentence for an either way offence from 12 to 6 months. The change came into force on 30 March 2023.  {my underline}  Once again the Magistrates Association responded by saying it (The Magistrates Association)  expressed disappointment about the reversal, cautioned about resignations, and said it would be urging the Government to restore the extended powers as soon as possible.

In 2021 a poll indicated that the public thought that sentences had been shortened but in fact crown court sentences had increased.  Indeed the prison population has increased by 20% in the last 20 years. The inevitable result of this crass mismanagement is that this dying administration has concluded that sentencing reform is a pre requisite for any other reforms to the prison problem. The government is the maker of its own misfortune.  Sentencing reform means promotion of community sentences tough enough to punish, deter and rehabilitate.  This sounds simple enough but requires a reinvigorated probation service already decimated by probably the most incompetent Justice Secretary this country has ever experienced, Chris Grayling.  To that end  we can only hope there is a basis for optimism. 

But for magistrates there is more to come.  Last week the King`s Speech had something interesting within its many bland pronouncements: "To address recent concerns about prison capacity and reoffending, Mr Chalk has stated the government would legislate to introduce a presumption that custodial sentences of less than 12 months would be suspended.[33] Offenders would instead serve their punishment in the community. Mr Chalk said the government did not plan to dispense with short sentences completely because a custodial sentence would remain the appropriate sanction in some circumstances."

So there in brief, we have it.  A justice system in its death throes, its death having been inflicted by a thousand self inflicted cuts.  Were an individual to inflict such mutilation on her/himself or another s/he would be immediately sectioned.  Defence, Health and Education have their own stories of blundering, mindless,  gross and asinine inefficiencies and mismanagement.  For all our futures 😱 is no help. Optimism is part of human nature.  I hope it`s enough to see us through. ☝

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