A DISMAL DUTY OF J.P.s AND AN EVASION OF DUTY BY HIS HONOUR

There are occasional matters before magistrates` courts when one wonders just how incoherent families can be.  When that matter involves a child`s non attendance at school the instinct is to put the interests of the child as a priority.  Whether or not that direction is followed sometimes decisions have to be made that irrespective of the parent`s or guardian`s efforts the child in question is so mentally or emotionally damaged that no amount of effort would have enabled them to escape being found guilty.  At the very least they would appear in court to plead their case or at least to personally explain their mitigation to the bench. 

Basildon Magistrates recently had what I would describe as the dismal duty to fine parents of non attending children who themselves failed to turn up in court. One can only wonder in dismay at the internal dynamics of such families. 

There can be few Justices of the Peace who have had the privilege of chairing a court who have not had to speak directly to witnesses or attenders who have shown their contempt for the proceedings by behaving in a manner incompatible with the solemnity of those proceedings  and which  must not be tolerated.  To farm that job out to a court usher outside the court is an evasion of responsibility but that is exactly what happened at Gloucester Crown Court when HH Jamie Tabor was presiding.  Shame on him for putting such pressure on an overworked and vastly underpaid member of staff when he himself should have chastised such people within the confines of the courtroom.

ARROGANCE, FAILURE AND USEFULNESS

Apropos my last post and Tweet the "I must be nice to all those underlings I have to control" CEO of HMCTS in her arrogance has still failed to make contact to explain or otherwise the report in the Littlehampton Gazette last week. She owes all who believe in press freedom an explanation.

On more familiar territory this case at Cardiff Crown Court is in a nutshell symbolic of all the failures with the justice system at the level where it matters most; in our courts.  Personally I encountered many similar circumstances on the bench and no doubt current active colleagues have their own tales of woe. 

Council Tax liability cases are  familiar if sometimes boring sittings for magistrates.  I would opine that those weasels at HMCTS and Petty France are cooking up plans to add them to their single justice list alongside TV licensing and similar. Read this case reported at the Court of Appeal on landlords` compliance.  It might be useful in limited cases applicable.  I certainly had quite a few in my time.

IS IT MISLEADING THAT NEWSPAPER PUBLISHES HMCTS PRESS RELEASE AS NEWS?

Yesterday was the cut off day for consultation on Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013.  Naturally the newspaper industry and this blogger amongst many hope that the government will repeal this iniquitous piece of legislation.  In general terms when government departments issue press releases they are published at the discretion of the media concerned and are subject to editorial comment.  News and comment are not to be confused.  

I have blogged previously that it is generally recognised that court reporting in local print media has become an increasingly rare event.  On January 3rd the Littlehampton Gazette apparently published  a direct press release from HMCTS as news of court results.  I commented on this the following day. As a result of this I received a Tweet from the CEO of HMCTS requesting my contact details such request being complied with. My impression was and is that I would receive some sort of reply. 

For the newly appointed head of HMCTS to be so sensitive to my suggestion that it might not be in the public interest for the press release to be published in a form that might be construed as the news as published by an independent newspaper indicated to me that there was some reasoning behind the release that would be a useful explanation.  One week on and I have heard nothing more. I can only assume that either Ms Susan Acland-Hood CEO of HMCTS thought better of asking one of her minions to get in touch with me or that those concerned have forgotten to do her bidding.  Either being the case I now must assume that the Littlehampton Gazette knowingly published a government press release as news without making it clear that it did not exercise any editorial control of it or a similar explanation.  

It would be iniquitous for similar future press releases to be published as news.  This is not the way to compensate for a lack of local courts` news reports compiled and edited by independent journalists. 

BRITISH TRADITION

Sometimes events widely separated in distance but with a common theme appear almost simultaneously to throw us into deep thought over our own convictions or opinions.  Last week a suspected villain was shot dead by police in West Yorkshire.  As per the British way an investigation was immediately put in hand notwithstanding the publicity given by media to local ethnic compatriots screaming for "answers".  The comparison between such police actions in the U.K. and America are striking.  Nevertheless the Metropolitan Police Federation is surveying its members as to whether they wish to be armed.  Many such exercises over the years have consistently indicated that police officers do not wish to be routinely carrying guns. Whether the British public wants its police officers armed is a moot point. Some polls say yes and others indicate a resistance to such a change.  Whether the traditional bobby on the beat syndrome can survive is IMHO doubtful.  Police are by all accounts deserting the concept of "the beat"  becoming a reaction force similar to the Fire Brigade which in certain areas is being brought into a joint command. From my own experience a few months ago waiting on the platform at Lille train station for my TGV connection to the South I was not disturbed, indeed I was comforted by the sight of an army squad of eight soldiers patrolling the platforms as a reaction to the atrocities in France. 

Such changes in this country are often done by stealth incrementally.  I will be surprised if routine arming of police does not become reality during the life of the next parliament.  

On a lighter note I have often wondered why non sentient beings such as dogs are credited with so called "bravery".  They are creatures of instinct and training yet we still have them being awarded medals or commendations.  It does no harm and of course reflects well upon the trainer. Like our unarmed police this is just another typical example of British tradition; like it or not.

REPEATING FAILURE PRODUCES FAILURE

I apologise in advance if this post seems boring, repetitive or the literary equivalent of banging one`s head against the proverbial brick wall. On the day when the government`s latest release shows the prison population is 84,737 i.e. it is running at 98.15% capacity, continuing tales of overcrowding, three to a cell being common and only a few weeks after the worst jail rioting in decades  an offender appearing at Boston Magistrates` Court pleaded, perhaps not in the normal sense, to actually be sent to prison. Faced with this typical example of an addicted recidivist  stealing at least without violence the bench refused his request. 

What will it take for the nonces at the MOJ and their supreme commander to grasp the nettle that court inflicted measures are futile for such people?  The system as it is constructed and likely to be for years to come is unable to rehabilitate or detox such as Sergejs Danilevics.  It surely cannot be more costly to divert certain offenders to compulsory medical units. Even the capital costs would be less than building more prisons. 

Sometime or other a government will have to face the reality that the current situation is unfit for purpose and that ending of short custodial sentences would do nothing to alleviate the problem which is people not fit for society and not sentences unfit for criminality. Repetition of a failing policy is futile. Possibly attributed to Einstein the following quotation says it all, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

A STAB AT JUSTICE

Contrary to what many people outside the legal environment might think alcohol is considered an aggravating circumstance in the committing of a criminal offence i.e. it is grounds for increasing a sentence from the starting point in the range recommended for the offence.  In the light of perennial ministerial comments about sentencing for even carrying a knife or bladed article never mind the use thereof it was therefore quite surprising to read of a case where a Recorder did not sentence to immediate custody a woman who in a state of inebriation stabbed her equally drunk partner in the chest. 

I suppose the anti prison lobby will be happy.

LOCAL COURT REPORTING OR BIG BROTHER HMCTS?

Social media, increasing costs, reduced advertising revenue  and myriad various reasons have been given for the reduction in court reporting by local print media.  That being said it was unusual to see in the Littlehampton Gazette the headline, "HM Courts Service;Results list for December 19th to 23rd 2016".  The format seems to indicate that the report was a press release from HMCTS directly and not written by a press reporter who was present or even an agency reporter`s submission. If the report was indeed compiled by a third party I would deem it a worthwhile contribution to the local population`s awareness of its local court  but if it were submitted by the former and published uncritically I would be less than joyous.  There has to be independent scrutiny of courts. Publications should not rely upon the state as the sole provider of such information. As a secondary thought; from the above  report of Joshua Lee of Hatfield Walk, Durrington, who was jailed for a total of 18 weeks what would the "ban short custodial sentences lobby" make of his case?

Joshua Lee, 22, of Hatfield Walk, Durrington, was jailed for a total of 18 weeks

Read more at: http://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/crime/hm-courts-service-results-list-for-december-19-to-23-2016-1-7756014

HM Courts Service: Results list for December 19 to 23, 2016

Read more at: http://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/crime/hm-courts-service-results-list-for-december-19-to-23-2016-1-7756014

HM Courts Service: Results list for December 19 to 23, 2016

Read more at: http://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/crime/hm-courts-service-results-list-for-december-19-to-23-2016-1-7756014

HM Courts Service: Results list for December 19 to 23, 2016

Read more at: http://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/crime/hm-courts-service-results-list-for-december-19-to-23-2016-1-7756014

HM Courts Service: Results list for December 19 to 23, 2016

Read more at: http://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/crime/hm-courts-service-results-list-for-december-19-to-23-2016-1-7756014

IMMOVABLE OBJECT OF SENTENCING-v- IRRESISTABLE FORCE AGAINST

Sometimes the futility of available sentencing disposals and the weary facile words of a bench chairman really do not invigorate my generally optimistic spirit. This example is not just a Christmas prezzie; it is repeated up and down the country every day in every magistrates` court.  The immovable object of a suspended sentence order the reason for not activating of which if breached must be made clear in the courtroom has met the unwritten irresistible force [advice?] at all levels not to impose custodial sentences especially short such sentences if there is any glimpse of a way of avoiding it. 

It is precisely for offenders such as he that efforts must be put in place by compulsion if necessary to treat addiction.  Without a properly funded government controlled national probation service this is impossible.  Until such time the whining moans and groans of those who wish to see custodial sentences less than six months banned completely will continue to fill the media from Twitter to The Times.   

THOUGHTS ON ANOTHER YEAR GONE

As the tide is going out on this year 2016 it`s a normal human function [failing?] as ever to look back over the previous twelve months and give thanks to whichever god, man made or ethereal, goes with you.  For me as a retired J.P. and I would surmise, many of my colleagues past and present a very very light slap on the back for undertaking a job for no financial reward but which offers the self satisfaction of being able to jack it in if personal principles are facing unacceptable imposed practices.  I retired early not wishing to be a party to having to pronounce the imposition of  the inglorious court charge in 2015.  

Since I can remember the MOJ has huffed and puffed like a miserable old dragon on its intention to retrieve outstanding fines.  This year is no exception.  Latest figures indicate that currently the jumbo amount of £747 million is outstanding. Indeed it is outstanding that none of the young weasel brains in Petty France has been able to invent  a system of punishment for low level summary [often motoring] offending which has a modicum of a chance of being successful; success being defined as achieving its aim.  In a month when 34 people were jailed for not paying Council Tax in Bradford there must be some other form of chastisement available which doesn`t cost over £18,000 annually as it does  per prisoner for an open prison; the cheapest in the prison estate. 

Recent proposals to streamline summary justice have indicated that a single J.P. could dispense very low level simple summary matters eg TV Licenses from suitable office premises with the assistance of a legal advisor. Proposed  changes to the Prisons and Court Reform Bill could herald the establishment of virtually secret on line courts where innocence or guilt would be established by e mail and those pleading guilty would not as at present have their guilt open to public reporting. There are some who argue that such decisions should be available on line; an argument unlikely to succeed.  But it is the principle that matters currently seen and heard by anybody choosing to sit in the public gallery of any British court might no longer be held sacrosanct  which is a great cause for concern for those who note the continuing reduction in the civil liberties of a citizen in what was once an open society. 

Governments seek to persuade us that they are achieving the maximum result for the minimum cost  whatever the subject of spending.  It is beyond reasonable doubt that they fail more often than not. Such failures are covered up until a media organisation or individual ferrets out the truth.  That the MOJ under Chris Grayling was able to waste so much tax payers` money on matters motivated by politics rather than good old fashioned common sense eg Transforming Probation, is a disgrace to us all especially the system which allows him to continue in office as Transport overlord.  The NHS has also suffered from political upheaval since 2010 which has resulted in the instigator of such "reforms", now discredited,  being found a seat in that sinecure called the House of Lords. 

Is it surprising that the great British public is losing faith in the established order?  It is by such incremental deficiencies in the actions of those voted into office that losing faith transforms into something more sinister.  Perhaps there is still time for those with the foresight to alter the general direction of political drift.  Brexit is just a single indicator of changes in the national psyche.  Momentum is another. What comes later could be disturbing to the extreme. 

 

ROBERT BURNS MADE IT CLEAR

The British or perhaps it`s only the English that have a reputation for loving their animals more than their neighbours. It seems that some apparently misbegotten people have taken that reputation rather more seriously than the rest of us.  In Yorkshire it appears that the French "fille" and its very close English derivative "filly" have become somewhat confused for an alleged  middle aged horse lover who doesn`t seem to have the need to go to the races to indulge his fancy. Tally Ho!

But it`s not just Yorkshire men with their cry of D.H. Lawrence, England and John Thomas who have made it to the courts recently.  They`re at it in Lincolnshire where this time it`s man`s woman`s best friend who has the bit between his teeth.....allegedly.

They used to say, Only in America........ 

At this for some, festive period I must thank my reader for using a few of their precious minutes over the past twelve months to peruse my offerings.  I will be spending the holiday period at hameldaeme this year so there might be a post or the odd Twitter contribution (@bloggingJP) before the start of 2017.

As the great poet put it:-  

O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us