By punter99 - 13 Oct 23 10:32 AM
Our prisons are full up, there is no more room. Judges have been told not to send any more people to jail, for now. But if you look at the media coverage of this story, it gives the impression that people convicted of serious crimes are just going to be let off.
The newspapers are saying burglars and rapists are going to be "set free", but that is a distortion of the facts. Their sentencing has been delayed, that's all. They have not been given a free pardon. The word temporarily is missing from the media headlines. They are temporarily free.
As we know, it already takes years for cases to come to court, if digital devices need to be checked, but that doesn't mean those people were "set free", it just means their sentencing is delayed.
There are things that could be done, to improve the situation, but the number of community sentences handed out has been falling. Other countries in Europe use house arrest much more widely than we do. Low risk people could just be tagged and sent hom with a curfew, rather than being jailed.
At the same time, it was only a few years ago, that the number of people being monitored under mappa, exceeded the number of people in prison for the first time. There are 90,000 mappas. Most of them are SO.
The courts are overloaded, probation are short staffed and the police under resourced, yet we are spending thousands of man hours every year, dragging low rsk online offenders through the courts and then visiting them at home for the next ten years. No wonder shoplifting has now effectively been legalised and they don't have enough police officers to attend every burglary anymore. Their priorities are all wrong.
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By JASB - 17 Oct 23 11:13 AM
+x+x+xThese extended wait times are interesting, and surely could equate to "cruel and unusual punishment". There was a case reported recently of a 3-year wait from arrest to trial. This was put down to covid. The mental toll this must take on people along with the financial distress surely should be taken into consideration when sentencing? This case is a SO case, and it is just mad that the person will be placed on the register and receive a SOPO/ SHPO whilst only being on bail restrictions. The system is mad. It's purely about resources. The system cannot cope anymore because its under resourced and we pay the price for that. There are worse things than being on bail for 3 years. You could be in jail on remand and there is no compensation, if you are later found not guilty. On the flipside of that, plenty of other people use their time waiting to come to court, to commit more crimes, so it's self defeating. Oddly enough, when I was waiting for my devices to be checked, I didn't find it that stressful. After the initial shock of the arrest wore off, which took about 3 months, I settled back into my normal routine. I was RUI, so I could carry on working and saving up for the inevitable court date. I could even go abroad on holiday, which makes no sense at all. I could have done what Ronnie Barker's son did and disappear to Bulgaria. I used the time to go to therapy and work on myself and I had just got used to it, when I received a court date through the post. I was hoping it would take them a lot longer to come back to me, but it only lasted 8 months. I find your experience to be somewhat interesting. It took about a year for my case to get to court - lot's or wrangling over charges etc. It was not a good time for me - the mental torture was verginging on the unbearable, I contemplated taking my life countless times and got too close for comfort at one stage (don't do it people - it's not worth it!).
Hi
I am in agreement with Punter99, as much as you wish the time to go fast so you understand what your future will entail; use this period of time productively and so wisely.
Personally it took 2 years to get to the "Plea" hearing and then a year to get to sentencing so I did a lot of research into understanding what my life would be like if the worse happened; prison.
I did approach my solicitor about gaining a Pysch assessment; this in ways helped with my case but more importantly helped whilst at HMP Whatton and later when requesting my SOPO conditions to be dismissed.
Also whilst waiting for the Plea hearing, I asked and it was approved for me to undertake a 3 month backpacking trip to South East Asia, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore and Cambodia. In fact I did travel back part way through for a medical and went back with no problems. I kept in touch with everyone on where I was via email.
In ways I knew that was something I probably would not have the chance to do in the future so think "big" and positively. I have found since my sentencing time is / has gone faster because I am chasing the dream of coming off the SOR. Issue is you get into that "frame of mind" and your life can disappear and you have done very little if you do not be careful.
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