A charmless young man came before us charged with assault, having punched the referee in a game of park football. Spectators on the touchline were shocked and someone called the police who duly arrested and charged the assailant.
Our colleagues at the early hearing adjourned the case for the preparation of pre-sentence reports, with a view to a community penalty. Twice he failed to turn up for his interview, then when he finally deigned to attend his behaviour towards the probation officer was so confrontational that she terminated he interview and submitted a so-called 'non-report' to us. His extensive list of previous convictions showed a propensity to violence, so we took the precaution of putting him in the armoured-glass dock in case he kicked off again.
We decided that there was no future in the community sentence route, so we sent him to prison for 18 weeks, reduced to 12 weeks as credit for his plea. I hope that he learns a lesson from this episode.
Sadly I fear that he'll perpetuate his propensity towards violence, and a stint in prison is unlikely to cure this. It seems to me that he would probably be better off having psychiatric care (what on Earth has led him to react with violence every time he's confronted or in a situation where he feels under threat?) He may be incapable of expressing himself in any other way due to him either lacking education or is intellectually incapable of doing so. Channelling this man's aggression to something more benign will be the work of a very, very, brave person!
ReplyDeleteIn my experience most violent offenders are only violent when it suits them. It`s a choice they make, they way up the odds before deciding if they will kick off.
DeleteThe majority of domestic violence offenders are compliant when I arrest them. The maniac who terrorises their beaten down partner disappears if he thinks he is going to get thumped back!
Can't you people get anything right, it is a "Nil Report" and what does the use of "so-called" indicate, what would you have wanted the Probation Officer to do in that situation? She didn't have the option of an armoured-glass dock to protect her! I can't wait until whoever is the next government gets rid of these amateur magistrates who are so far up their own backsides that they can't acknowledge the difficult and at times dangerous jobs that Probation Officers do in trying to assist the Courts.
ReplyDeleteOoh, touchy!
DeleteThe document that I saw was headed 'non-report'. "So-called" was to indicate to readers who are not involved with criminal justice, that the expression is a bit of jargon.
I defer to no-one in my respect for the Probation Service, members of which have been buggered about rotten by the Government.
Bystander is entirely right that the form produced in court is now entitled a "non-report", even if the jargon term is a "nil report".
DeleteThe reaction of the individual who wrote the comment above shows that they are not fit to serve in any rôle in the justice system, and certainly not as a report writer, because of their total lack of judgement and lack of all restraint or sense of proportion. BS was not criticising in any way the probation officer who quite rightly terminated the interview. That was obvious from the way in which he presented the facts.
In fact, the reaction of this commentator is so worrying that I would not be at all surprised to see them appear before the bench themselves on a public order or assault charge. They appear unable to respond appropriately, and to be seeking pretexts to vent their spleen.
Such behaviour is very different from that displayed by any other member of the probation service that I have had the good fortune to encounter, and I can only assume that this poor person may have been "let go" or given invalidity because of issues that affected their ability to perform the difficult and delicate task of being a probation officer.
They may well need help of the sort that probation officers are so skilled at identifying and recommending.
Armored glass dock???
DeleteI'd say that 75% of my sittings have no glass dock. And a good proportion of them have me within an arm's swing of the witness box.
And you suggest people 'get things right' ?
Anonymous19 April 2015 at 15:12:
DeleteWith respect I think your judgement is unfair, for the reason BS mentioned. Probation staff have been completely shafted by the outgoing government. A world-class service has been dis-membered, staff dis-illusioned and dis-spirited for almost entirely ideological reasons. They do not know whether they will have a job in 3 months time, once the private companies (G4S and friends - remember them?) now creaming off their profit margin start the redundancy process.
Perhaps your contact with Probation has not been that recent.
Well said Anon @19 April 15:32 - I agree completely.
ReplyDeleteAnd to those who wish to dispense with the services of the Magistracy, I simply ask this - where will you find the thousand or more professional District Judges that would be required to replace the current well trained volunteer force, and more importantly, where would the money to pay for them come from?
I doubt the unhappy correspondent would like to see funding to the Probation Service cut even further...
I doubt you would need more than a couple of hundred. Moreover given that hardly anyone is getting prossecuted I doubt they will need anyone shortly.
DeleteI should have said @ 15:12 not 15:32...oops...Monday morning typing error!!!
DeleteTo Anon @ 11:55, gov.uk reckons there is about 21,500 lay magistrates. On the basis that each only sits for the minimum 13 days, that's 273,000 lay magistrate sitting days. Divide it by three, because you only have one DJ, and that's 91,000 DJ sitting days you'd need. For the sake of argument let's say a DJ moves twice as fast as a lay bench (the truth is that in some things they're quicker, but in trials they're probably similar) and you have 45,500 sitting days by a DJ. A full time judge is expected to sit for 220 days per year (the rest being administration and professional development). This does indeed mean (in back of a fag packet terms), that you do indeed need a couple of hundred DJs to replace the lay magistracy. Their salaries, annual leave, pensions etc however, will be well north of £30M, without training and recruitment costs.
DeleteLong ago when I sat in London everyone who came into court went into the dock fanked by at least one burly copper- I never had any trouble at all and most who came left by the route they entered. When they went the other route there was a quick dispatch. If the offender decided to "kick-off" he was contained and quickly disappeared, sometimes with assistenace of the gaoler(s) to thew waiting van.
ReplyDeleteThese days courts are so much of a joke your lucky if there is an usher never mind a gaoler.
to use a non-judicail phrase its about time we stopped pissing about and dished out the right sentence at the right time. This chap clearly locked himself up- so it's his own bloody fault!!
So - assuming he doesn't get any days added inside for 'kicking off' - he'll be out in around six week's time. During that period he won't get anywhere near an anger management course or any other programme in view of the long waiting lists. That is why a community sentence with an order to attend such a course might have offered a better chance of success (although I must admit I have my doubts about that in view of the description above).
ReplyDeleteI very much doubt that this young man will learn anything from what is generally known as a 'sh*t and a shave' sentence. However, a good deal of taxpayers' money will have been wasted providing him with a place in our overcrowded and under-staffed prison system - which remains deep in crisis.
Sometimes you can't help those who won't help themselves- fact of life!! however crap that might be.
DeleteDoubtless you are correct.
DeleteSo what would you suggest would be a more suitable and efficacious course of action - given that he has already failed to comply with a community order and no doubt all other earlier disposals.
Therein lies the problem with the "Prison doesn't work" argument. When all available disposals have been tried, where do you go next if not prison? What sanctions do you use against someone who doesn't care and will ignore court orders and do a short stint in prison without blinking an eye?
Prison is the worst we can do but short sentences, for some, have little useful effect. Do we just give up and not bother to punish those who offend? Do we bear the cost of a spell in prison, accepting that there will be no meaningful attempt at reform and just concentrate on punishment alone?
I have no answers but then neither do those who say that prison doesn't work. More often than not we are talking about arrogant, feckless & usually poorly educated individuals who respect nothing and no one.
Society has a real problem in dealing with the kind of people described in the original topic and whilst I hear a lot about what doesn't work, I haven't heard any sensible alternatives. Instead of telling us what doesn't work, tell us what will, bearing in mind the nature of the individuals we are talking about.
Hear, hear, Anonymous at 20 April 2015 16:46. Very well put.
DeleteAt least he's away from the general public for a couple of weeks, and it may have a slight deterrent effect, albeit I would not be surprised if he ends up in court again before long.
It may be that he suffers from a condition such as ADHD, in which case medical intervention, and a possible prescription may help (I know anecdotally of a friend of a friend who has benefited significantly from medication and is much happier as a result).
It may be as Tiptop says that he just won't be helped - unfortunately some people are just a******s and there's not much that can be done. Better to have some sort of punishment system in place, otherwise he and those like him would cause far more disruption.
I get really fed up in the youth court, where we hear much more than in adult court, that little John or Jane has ADHD. I have never ever seen any evidence to support this despite it often being cited in mitigation. The bench can tell if a child is really fidgety or really dozy and in those cases they might well have it or be on medication, but otherwise....................
DeleteI agree that it seems (at least to me) there are clearly some people who get diagnosed with ADHD when it is really a case of Not Wanting To Sit Down And Do What They Are Told, but that said, there are some genuine cases.
DeleteI have a friend who is a teacher and she says that some of her pupils that are diagnosed with ADHD are just little whatsits who don't want to behave, but there are some who do genuinely appear to have a medical condition (not that she, or for that matter I, claim to have any medical training).
I wouldn't like to guess what the ratio is between proper medical conditions and poor behaviour, mind!
Firstly: If you have a glass dock, why don't you put defendants into it as soon as they come into court? It has been practice in our courts to do that for years, except for low-level cases including motoring. We don't lock the door unless the defendant is in custody, or we feel that he may kick off - something which our ushers are very good at gauging when they observe them outside.
ReplyDeleteSecondly: congratulations BS, your website is fast replacing the axed MA Forum, judging by the increasing posts. Long may it continue!
The reality in a lot of places is there is virtually no staff to police the dock.
Delete"We don't lock the door unless the defendant is in custody, or we feel that he may kick off - something which our ushers are very good at gauging when they observe them outside."
DeleteIn my neck of the woods an usher is fast becoming an endangered species.
What this young man needed was a petition demanding that he suffer no consequences for his violence, signed by a million fans
ReplyDeleteSerco are contracted to provide a predetermined level of dock security. It costs them if they fail.
ReplyDelete