The Secret Barrister- The Big Sentencing Con

 Summary

In chapter 10 of The Secret Barrister- Stories of the law and how it is broken the writer talks about the sentencing of the defendants and where problems lay in every area of the criminal justice system. The Secret Barrister talks about how the English and Welsh public may say sentences are too soft and explains why we may think this and also explains what other punishments may have been put in place which may not have made it into a newspaper article. The writer includes details on the judge, the prisons, the government and the sentencing council to name just a few.

Firstly, The Secret Barrister tells us the reason we may think that sentences of defendants are too lenient are because judges must follow sentencing guidelines. These sentencing guidelines are the minimum and maximum possible sentence for different crimes and give the judge a range of time which they can choose how long a sentence may be. These maximum sentences are decided by the government and the judge must not go above the maximum sentence stated. In many newspaper articles about court decisions and sentences they often blame the Judge for the sentence which is alright to some extent as the judges do have flexibility and options on the sentences they can give but the media do not make it clear that the judges must also follow guidelines which restricts them for giving an overly long sentence. The sentencing ranges are also likely to be quite bad and not be long enough and so because judges cannot leave these ranges the sentence may be far too lenient all because the sentence ranges are far too soft.

We then learn that in prison inmates had access to books, free sky subscriptions and movies and DVDs with an 18 rated certificate. To start with the books, an MP was going to impose a book ban for prisoners which in my own personal opinion is a bad idea but luckily a judge said this was unlawful and so those responsible had to change their policies on this rule. The free sky subscriptions and movies with an 18 rating have also been banned in public prisons which I would say is good as the taxpayer pays for these criminals to be punished, not get free subscriptions which we would not get ourselves from outside prison.

The writer then talks to us about how some judges are gentler than others. The sentencing guidelines allow the judges some freedom in the sentences they give to the defendants in front of them and different judges may have different opinions on what sentence a defendant should have. Because of this, two defendants being convicted of the same thing could walk out with to completely different sentences. I should make clear at this point that this may not be entirely down to the judge but also down to the case as the evidence may make a difference, previous convictions, mental health problems and even class may also have an impact on what sentence a defendant gets.

The Secret Barrister goes on to say that how tough a judges sentence maybe can also depend on the time of the day and a variety of other factors. Firstly, a judges breakfast may have an influence on what sentence the judge gives and this would depend on if he was hungry or not. Similarly, if he has to deal with a case at 12 noon and it does not finish until half-past one then he is likely to get hungry as he would not have had the chance to eat his lunch and so, therefore, may get impatient and pass a harsher sentence. It is also known for judges to pass a harsher sentence in the afternoon and this is particularly the case when the judge is not expecting to have to work in the afternoon as he had finished all his scheduled cases and may have had more cases given to him against his will. It has also been proven that tiredness can affect a judges sentence and sentences are tougher on daylight saving day than any other day in the year due to the time differences.

The writer informs us that when the judge is deciding a sentence, it is far much more than deciding a digit from open space and shouting that digit out. The judge must refer to all the sentencing guidelines, all the evidence, previous convictions and much more before they can pass a sentence. They also have to see if the case they are presented with qualifies for the different sentences. The judge may not give a prison sentence but rather one of the other sentences which ranges greatly. For example, in one case someone may not be eligible to go to prison but could be sentenced to a hospital and have a restraining order in place as an example. There are many different punishments somebody could get.

When The Secret Barrister talks about prisons they make it very clear that prisons are overcrowded with inmates and are well understaffed due to budget cuts. Because of this, it is common that two inmates are stuffed in a prison cell made for one inmate. Furthermore, we are made aware that those with mental health conditions are not really catered for and self-harm and suicide are very common in prisons. We also learn that an MP also made it illegal for inmates to have any kind of sex but sexual assault still does take place in prisons. 

The Secret Barrister concludes this chapter makes it clear that the big sentencing con will continue for the foreseeable future and there is no hope for any changes just yet. This is quite bad as not only sentence guidelines will not change to allow sentences that reflect the crime but also prisons are likely to continue being overcrowded and this is likely to even lead to health and safety problems. 

That is all I am noting about this chapter and so as always, these are only my notes and points that have stood out to me and so I may have missed some points which are mentioned in this chapter and I would not have written in as much detail as the Secret Barrister so I highly recommend you read this book yourself. Please do either donate via Paypal or buy me a book using the buttons at the side of this blog to allow me to continue my mission and continue writing for a long time to come. Thank you for reading.