Re: Trailer for Sale

On Sun, 27 Aug 2006 02:06:55 +0100, deadmail wrote:

Verdigris <verdigris@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
<44f0c9c9$0$3581$ed2e19e4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

There's been a lot of criticism of the CPS lately for their tendancy to
only take rock solid cases to court, leading to a tendancy to charge
people with lesser offences or let them off altogether. They've been
criticised for this by judges even!

They seem to be more interested in their conviction rates than serving the
cause of justice - or even law and order!

I'm sure that somewhere there's either a set of KPIs or a 'dashboard'
which has all sorts of targets and their RAG status for the CPS.

Market controls...

From what I've heard there are no external KPIs. I suspect that there
aren't even any formal internal targets, just a perception that 100%
success is good, even if it's 100% success at something that's less
valuable.

It amounts to the same thing, though.

I think that the risk of a year
inside is much more of a deterrent that the guarantee of a fine and a
couple of weeks of community service and it's more likely to appease the
victims.

I don't think that is the case, we lock up more than any other country
and yet we er.. need to continue locking more people up. I suppose we
could be more 'criminal', but I don't think this is in our national
psyche. I suspect that prison isn't working.

Yes, you're right. Far too many people imprisoned and far too little use
of alternative sentencing.

Perhaps better to say that people should be prosecuted for the crimes they
commit, even if they're less likely to be convicted than for a lesser
offence.[1] Going to court is a big risk, which no defendent would gladly
run.

There was some stuff about this on R4 a couple of weeks ago and some of
the victims of crime that were interviewed were very upset that people
were prosecuted for lesser offences. Not simply because they didn't
receive as much punishment but because their actual crime wasn't
acknowledged and by implication the sufferring of the victims wasn't
recognised.

So let's see the CPS take a few more risks, but provide more non-custodial
options in sentencing and allow judges and magistrates some more
flexibility.[2]

[1] Within reason.
[2] Something Blair seems keen to put a stop to. The current regime
doesn't seem to like people making decisions.

--
Simon - UKRM~verdigris,plus,com
Tiger - A return to good sense.
Z1000 - Less sense, more sensation.
MAG BOTAFOT#36 two#22 HLR#pi BONY#62 BHaLC#3 LotR#7

.

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