9 - Reforms Flashcards
Chris Grayling
“From my first day in this job I have been clear that punishment must mean punishment. A community sentence shouldn’t just consist of a meeting with an offender manager, prisoners shouldn’t spend their time in prison watching satellite television and the worst offenders should get the very toughest sentences.
Step by step we’re overhauling sentencing and sending a clear message to criminals that crime doesn’t pay”
Other…
In a move to improve public confidence in community sentences, adult sentences will now have to include some form of punishment.
Last year more than 130,000 community sentences were handed down by the courts. Around one-third of community sentences contain no punitive element but from 11 December this will change. Most sentences will contain an element of formal punishment such as a fine, unpaid work, curfew or exclusion from certain areas. This could affect around 40,000 offenders per year.
This is the latest step in a wide range of sentencing reforms ranging from restrictions on the use of cautions for more serious offences to the introduction of a mandatory life sentence for the most serious repeat offenders.
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (2012), introduced a number of reforms to sentencing, including…
longer, more restrictive curfews
a new regime where more dangerous offenders are given life sentences and others spending long periods in prison are supervised for longer periods after their release
new knife crime offences and mandatory minimum custodial sentences for those who carry knives and offensive weapons in schools and public places
a new offence of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, with a maximum penalty of 5 years’ imprisonment
Other recent reforms…
The Crime and Courts Act 2013 all community sentences must now include some form of punishment.
The Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 makes changes to supervision arrangements for offenders released from custody
