[Gibbo]

... of minimum sentences for convicted criminals

If a criminal were to be sentenced to 5 years in prison, then that is how long
he/she would serve unless he/she were to behave badly, in which case his/her
sentence would be lengthened. No shortening of sentences for good behaviour
as good behaviour is mandatory rather than a rewardable option.

Perhaps this would go some way to restoring peoples faith in the judiciary's
ability to ensure a suitable level of justice is percieved to be being served out
to those who decide to break the law.

 

[bazza]

Dunno really. It seems to me thatyou could give exactly the same sentences as you do now, but call it half as much from the start, and it would negate the bad publicity caused by the phrase 'huh, he'll be out in half that time'.
Instead of calling it 10 years and letting them out in five - why not just call it five?

 

[v6hughes]

a good idea in principle but as with most things i dont think its as black and white as that

 

[braddersR]

Be spot on if it actually worked like that Gibbo :thumbs:

 

[keithyboy]

Dunno really. It seems to me thatyou could give exactly the same sentences as you do now, but call it half as much from the start, and it would negate the bad publicity caused by the phrase 'huh, he'll be out in half that time'.
Instead of calling it 10 years and letting them out in five - why not just call it five?

I agree that if the sentence is 5 years that's what they should serve.

The truth of the matter is that we don't know if someone sentenced to 10 years gets out in 5 unless the Daily Mail report on it for us.

 

[Gibbo]

I agree that if the sentence is 5 years that's what they should serve.

The truth of the matter is that we don't know if someone sentenced to 10 years gets out in 5 unless the Daily Mail report on it for us.

But we do know that the system allows for that to happen, whether the
Daily Mail says so or not. This doesn't need to be a 'let's slag off the Daily
Mail' type of thread

 

[Rewe]

What would be the incentive for a crim to repent and rehabilitate? How would we pay for all the additional board and lodging? No the system is in place for a reason, not just to get up middle England's noses or give the Mail easy copy.

 

[Gibbo]

Can't anybody do anything without some kind of bonus incentive these days


:lol:

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Nail em up I say! nail em up!!

 

[Stori]

Are you talking about minimum sentences for a Particular crime or that the time sentenced should be the minimum Sentence.
The former would make juries even more unsure of whether they should convict unless the evidence was overwhelming, and the later would probably lead to reduced sentences by the Judiciary.
I.e. nothing much would change.

The real solution is to get the criminals off the street one way or the other... even if it is to give them Community "Inconvenience' service such that they have to do 'trivial' things every day. I remember a friend from Burma saying Burma had the system of Train fare evasion fines which was extremely inconvenient. Caught without a train fare, you were not fined as such just told to go and pay the fare in several installments at several inconvenient locations which you had to purchase a train ticket in order to get to the station to pay the partial fine.

This system could work for under age Juveniles. Do something wrong and you get automatic 'after' school public service. Same on Weekends. Inconvenience the little buggers and get them out of their 'gangs. So an underage drug mule would be removed from the system doing Community work for example. Same for under age drinkers, car thieves even for carrying a knife etc. Any free time would be automatically Community service . Cannot steal if you haven't got the time to do it

Obviously for serious Violent Crimes this wont work but part of the problem is we are too lenient on the young offenders in the First Place.

We need to be inventive. In a tribal society the miscreants would eventually be either banished or killed and the problem would be gone for ever.

 

[Glug]

We should have the three strike rule as well.

 

[symon]

Having minimum prison terms might actually reduce prison populations.

The reason being there would be a greater deterrent to commiting the crime in the first place.