|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: Strip magistrates of jailing powers, says prisons' chief
Ananova
Friday 01 Mar 2002 Prison governors facing a massive surge in inmate numbers have called for magistrates to be stripped of their powers to jail people. New figures are expected to show the prison population in England and Wales has hit a new record of more than 70,000. Mike Newell, president of the Prison Governors' Association, said drastic action is now needed to cut numbers. He warned that too many people who had committed less serious crimes were being locked up, and said that short sentences were worthless and clogging up the system. "Magistrates now have a wide range of community penalties available to them but they insist on imposing inappropriate prison sentences," he said. "We say these powers should now be taken away from them to stop such inappropriate sentencing." Magistrates could only jail people for a maximum of 12 months, but there was little good work the Prison Service could do in short spaces of time, he said. "Sending people to prison for short sentences often causes more harm than good," he went on. The maximum number of prisoners the system can handle is said to be 71,000. The prison governors have now demanded an urgent meeting with Home Secretary David Blunkett to discuss the crisis.
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!