Sunday, November 24, 2013

Falling Through The Cracks

This country has a comprehensive and consequently expensive welfare state, designed to eliminate destitution at the bottom end of society. Nevertheless a lot of people slip between the cracks, and a proportion of them end up in front of magistrates. Usually there are underlying mental health issues, or an addiction to drugs or alcohol; sometimes both. It is common for such people to be a nuisance to the public, which may attract the attention of the police.
We have recently seen a man of 67, who came into the glass dock on crutches. He was represented by the Duty Solicitor, and faced a charge of breaching an ASBO. He is forbidden to go to a local facility that attracts drifters and homeless people because it is open for 24 hours a day, but, inevitably, he goes there anyway.
Breach of an ASBO is an either-way offence that can carry up to five years' imprisonment at the Crown Court, or six months at the Mags'. Our man had been to the Council's homeless unit and they had sent him to one of the cheap B & Bs that abound in our area.  He complained about the lack of heating in his room, and was promptly told to leave. He then saw breaching the ASBO as a route to a a bed for the night, so breach it is what he did. He has previously been imprisoned for doing this, but it looked uncomfortably like locking him up for being homeless so we imposed a fine, deemed it served, and left it to the solicitor who promised that he would take his client to the council and try to sort things out (for which he will not be paid).
One of the first things that I was told when I joined the Bench was "You are not a social worker" because we have virtually no tools at our disposal to deal with the sad and the mad among our clientele. Only a week ago a man was brought in for hurling a brick through the front window of the police station - for the thirteenth time. There was an application to give him an ASBO, but we refused on the basis that an ASBO ought not to prohibit something that is a crime in its own right. Getting arrested and put into a warm cell was exactly what he wanted, so an ASBO would be more than usually useless.
There but for the grace of god.............

8 comments:

  1. I've lost count of the times I have argued with colleagues and legal advisers about not putting into an ASBO something which is an offence in its own right. The police go for it of course because it means that a non imprisonable offence, if committed in breach of an ASBO, can immediately attract a prison sentence.

    In these circumstances getting someone into a cell for a few weeks, months or years suits their purpose very well and no doubt it's what the public want, but that doesn't make it right.

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  2. Is their case law to the effect that 'ASBOs ought not prohibit something that is a crime in its own right'?

    It's just I thought that was the point, particularly as nearly every single one granted covers the minor public order offences. How does that work if your maxim is correct?

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    1. There's a further mistake being made. Those offences are for the acts being done as an isolated incident. The ASBO would criminalise the acts as part of a continuing set of anti-social behaviour. To directly compare the two is wrong.

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  3. Is this a sure way of getting a warm cell etc. Sounds rather attractive in some ways. Do they have TV?

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  4. This may seem a dumb question, but I'm just a layman. Why would someone of 67 on sticks need the glass dock? There's not much chance of him leaping out and making a runner or assaulting a court official.

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  5. He was in custody, having been arrested for breach of Asbo. The stairs from the cells lead into the glass dock. Those on bail go into the open dock along with people who have been summonsed to court.

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    1. The Bench may not be a social service, but that's one of the reasons the Probation Service was invented, so that social work-trained officers could advise the court, assist the offender and along the way, befriend them. A simple but effective idea I would venture to suggest, even in 2013.

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  6. Public service probation, what a quaint idea.

    I thought the idea was for the Tories to sell it off to their donors as offender management services.

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