From what I’m hearing, this sentence would normally be a community order but the judge wanted to make an example out of the awful thug.
Yes which makes it quite pointless imo. I repeat that a few days behind bars and not many would come back, believes me. Humans will adapt to anything. After a few weeks inside people become used to their surroundings and prison has no fear Prison is a microcosm of life outside but in a pressure cooker atmosphere. I maintain that short sentences are a waste of time and money. He will probably do 5 weeks. Waste of time? Well his career and life is destroyed but what does that do to improve public life? Prison is not about vengeance, it is supposed to rehabilitate so to that extent it may work. I don’t know.
Since when has NSC been the place for sensible views from people who actually have experience in what they're talking about and discussion based on that knowledge
I am not condoning what he did , in fact I would prefer more heavy sentences were passed in a lot more cases. A new growth industry should be building prisons potentially with some of the convicted doing labouring work on them.
No prison is not about punishment. First it is about keeping the public safe from violent people. Appropriate here I think. Prison is all about rehabilitation and how are you supposed to do that with a 10 week sentence? It is ludicrous to expect someone to be rehabilitated in a few f=weeks and very expensive, I might add. Perhaps we should be looking at who makes money out of this? Follow the money was always good advice as far a I am concerned.
That’s Scotland! What do you expect? Different in so many ways and in my opinion superior. There are so many things in Scottish law that I wish we had in England but there you go.
I was told right at the start of my career that it was not about punishment, it was about rehabilitation. What is the point of banging up people for so many months or years and then sending them back out into society? Apart from a handful of people everyone comes out to resume their lives at some point.That seems to have got lost somewhere and our prisons are bursting at the seems. I thank my lucky stars that I am out of there.
www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk
Yes, I get that but sentences can be suspended and I maintain that short sentences are futile as well as expensive.Sorry, you are wrong.
Sentencing basics – Sentencing
Sentencing basics
What is a sentence?
A sentence is the punishment a judge or magistrate decides should be given to someone who has been convicted of a crime.
It comes at the end of a prosecution. After a crime occurs, and the police arrest and charge someone, the Crown Prosecution Service decides whether to take them to court.
If they are prosecuted and either plead guilty or are found guilty by magistrates, or for more serious offences, a jury of members of the public, they are then sentenced.
The judge or magistrates look at the facts of the case and decides what the most appropriate sentence would be, based on the harm done to the victim and how blameworthy the offender is. The sentence imposed on an offender should reflect the crime they have committed and be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence. It is up to the judge or magistrates to decide how much weight to give each factor in the case they are dealing with.
What are sentences for?
There are five things sentencing sets out to do when dealing with the vast majority of adult offenders. While punishing the offender for the crime committed is one of the purposes, there are other important aims, like preventing crime happening in the future so more people don’t become victims of the same offender.
A sentence aims to:
- Punish the offender – this can include going to prison, doing unpaid work in the community, obeying a curfew or paying a fine.
- Reduce crime – by preventing the offender from committing more crime and putting others off from committing similar offences.
- Reform and rehabilitate offenders – changing an offender’s behaviour to prevent future crime for example by requiring an offender to have treatment for drug addiction or alcohol abuse.
- Protect the public – from the offender and from the risk of more crimes being committed by them. This could be by putting them in prison, restricting their activities or supervision by probation.
- Make the offender give something back – for example, by the payment of compensation or through restorative justice. Restorative justice gives victims the chance to tell offenders about the impact of their crime and get an apology.
I imagine that the sentence wasn't suspended to send a message. "Pour encourager les autres" as they say in Spain, Rodney.
