Reports that the government is seeking to increase magistrates’ sentencing powers have been criticised by the representative body for criminal barristers.
The head of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) said increasing magistrate’ sentencing powers, from the ability to hand down 6 month prison sentences to up to 12 month sentences, would be ‘a kneejerk reaction’ that would ‘simply make things worse’ for overcrowded prisons.
A government source told Sky News over the weekend that while the prison population would initially increase, allowing magistrates to hear more complex cases would mean eventually the number of remand prisoners would decrease, as many would be released after their conviction having already served their time.
This comes in the wake of emergency measures to rapidly reduce the population in the prison estate, which had almost reached full capacity by the time of the general election. Over 1,700 prisoners were released last week under operation ‘Early Dawn’, a measure that meant many prisoners were released having served 40%, rather than 50%, of their sentence.
The Conservative government looked into increasing the sentencing powers of magistrates in 2022 in order to clear backlogs within the courts but couldn’t go ahead with the measures as the initial increase in prisoners would have overwhelmed a system already close to capacity.
Responding to the most recent proposal Mary Prior KC, head of the CBA, said the government ‘must stop simply tinkering around the edges of a system in the midst of collapse’.
She told Sky News: ‘We had hoped that a new government would be a new start. There is still time for this government to stop headline-grabbing policies and begin the vitally important process of rescuing the criminal justice system. We need to have a collaborative and sensible approach to the impact of sentencing when prisons are already full.’
She referred to the previous government’s plans, adding: ‘This suggestion has been tried before but removed very quickly. Doubling magistrates’ maximum sentencing powers will only increase pressure on reduced prison space, by speedily raising the much bigger sentenced prisoner population.’
The Justice Gap reported in November that decisions in Magistrates Courts were marked by ‘poor quality decision-making’, with four out of five decisions regarding remand in custody or imposing bail conditions failing to reference relevant laws or provide comprehensive reasoning.
