Is this justice? (From Malvern Gazette)

Is this justice?

11:34am Friday 7th September 2007 in Letters

WHAT to do about young people who commit violent crimes raises many difficult questions and no easy answers. They do so much harm, often with little or apparently no thought, that it can be tempting to treat them with some of their own medicine, and to do so in the belief that one is doing justice. Judges, when sentencing, have to take account of how "ordinary" people feel - but they also have to look at the likely consequences of a sentence, including the future conduct of the offender.

Part of the problem lies in the offender's lack of moral education. He may never have begun to see things from the victim's viewpoint, or even to see that his victim has a viewpoint. A sense of proportion is essential when judging him. It generally bars us from locking him up forever. The greater the number of those sentenced to very long sentences, the smaller must be the range of crimes for which shorter sentences are appropriate. When do we stop building prisons?

In my letter of August 17, I listed five purposes of punishment. After more than 40 years working as a lawyer in the criminal courts, I know of no others. All, except revenge, aim to benefit society and/or to improve the offender, and have to be weighed together in the sentencing process. This is what the Appeal Court seems to have done when reducing from 12 years to eight the term imposed on the men who attacked the Hanley Swan postmaster. What you describe as "their escalating pattern of criminal behaviour" was doubtless one reason why they received long sentences. Their youth, and thus both their limited experience of life and their greater possibility of improvement, could well have justified the reduction of those sentences.

Parliament gave power to the Court of Appeal to increase unduly lenient sentences. The petition, supported by your correspondent Susan Key, seeks to remove its power to reduce harsh ones, even when they may be counter-productive. Is this really justice?

IVAN GEFFEN, West Malvern Road, Malvern.