The government cannot stand independent power or judgment, and its centralising policies continue apace. Whilst there has been a long struggle between the judiciary and the political class over financing and sentencing, the establishment of the Justice Ministry has seen further erosion of an independent judiciary.
The
Ministry has set up a Sentencing Council that now sets out mandatory
directives on sentencing to avoid the euphemism: 'upward sentencing
drift', as criminal sentences lengthen. Given that longer prison
sentences costs more as prison places increase, the Sentencing
Council is accused of shortening prison sentences.
Another example of a quango taking political decisions second-hand in
order to defend politicians from being weak on crime. Of course, this also means that judges will have less space to show leniency or mercy.
The Sentencing Council will become the body providing sentencing guides for judges and magistrates when it replaces the Sentencing Guidelines Council and Sentencing Advisory Panel. It has greater powers because legislation says courts “must follow” guidelines and have a “duty” to impose sentences within an identified range. Under the previous bodies, courts needed only to “have regard” to any guidelines.
An “impact assessment” for the new council drawn up by the Ministry of Justice said a “closer adherence to sentencing ranges could arrest historical trends in upward sentencing drift”.
“Arresting sentencing drift could potentially mean avoiding the need to build some 1,000 additional prison places,” it said.
The problem is that this defence does not work any longer. Political expediency for short-term avoidance of poor headlines gifts greater power to a quango (aided and abetted by civil servants) over the judiciary. The whole cycle of this political economy: exacerbating political weakness to obtain further power, must be broken.
Judges are there to judge. Sentences should be their prerogative. After all, if sentencing is so sensitive, how can one trust juries to come to correct conclusions. Oh you can', and that is why habeas corpus is gradually being erased.