Since Monday October 9, English and Welsh judges have “received the order/been strongly encouraged” not to imprison anyone who appears before them, according to a senior magistrate of the royal court, cited by the Times. These magistrates would have been incentivized to delay the sentencing of criminals, currently on bail – including rapists and burglars – because of prison overcrowding.
According to The Guardian, citing the Times, it was the judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, Lord Justice Edis, who issued the order during a private call.
A few months ago, Judge Edis said that for offenses carrying shorter sentences, judges and magistrates should consider imposing suspended sentences taking into account “current levels of the prison population”. Lord Justice Edis added that “detention will be more difficult than before due to high occupancy rates, reduced access to rehabilitation programs and the possibility of prisoners being held further from home.”
A government source told the Guardian that this measure would apply to those who were released on bail during their trial, and who would therefore already have been assessed as “low risk”. The idea being that these defendants remain free on bail between the time of the indictment and that of the verdict, then that they are imprisoned at the time of the verdict (if a prison sentence is then pronounced).
But the judges question and worry; their “biggest concern” remains individuals accused of rape, rape of a child under 13 and other sexual assaults. Even if they are charged with these charges, they are now likely to remain free on bail, before the final verdict, they worry.
Faced with criticism, the United Kingdom is moving to rent prison space to foreign countries to combat the national shortage, according to plans announced at the Conservative Party conference in early October.
According to a Ministry of Justice spokesperson interviewed by The Guardian, the prison population in the United Kingdom was 88,016 last week, an increase of more than 6,500 in one year, and almost 10,000 more than two years ago. The number of incarcerated people is close to its capacity limit established at 88,667. Still according to this spokesperson, “the criminal justice system has experienced unprecedented growth in the prison population, following the pandemic and the lawyers’ strike, particularly among those awaiting trial, with 6,000 prisoners more in pre-trial detention than before the pandemic.”