The Starmer Years - Can The New Broom Sweep Clean?

[Farmer Saint]

7 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Sounds like two tier justice to me. 

Yes, but we have that already - Magistrates Courts don't have juries.

[sadoldgit]

47 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

We have a broken/long/expensive system at the moment - this may help.

Thanks to the austerity years the Criminal Justice System is on its knees and measures need to be taken to sort out the back log. Cutting staff in the courts, probation, the CPS and the police every year for years has created this situation. If Badenoch/The Tories kick off about it they need to remember why we are in this state in the first place.

[hypochondriac]

16 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

But if this clears the backlog of cases, where are the increased numbers of the convicted going to go ? The prisons are full.

Release some to make room for the social media villains the judges will Convict that jurys generally don't.

[egg]

54 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

We have a broken/long/expensive system at the moment - this may help.

I'm not sure how. There's an abundance of jurors out there, and removing them from the equation still leaves a trial, which still requires a judge, a court room, an usher, prosecution and defence counsel, etc. 

There isn't that court space, those Judges or the budget in the system. I also doubt sufficient underpaid legal aid defence lawyers would be available, ditto prosecutors. 

That's all aside from stripping away the right to elect a jury trial in many cases, which is a massive part of our legal system. 

Terrible decision for me. 

 

[egg]

11 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Release some to make room for the social media villains the judges will Convict that jurys generally don't.

Ha! The correct solution imo is to have a complete rethink of our sentence structure, and invest heavily into a rehabilitative justice system. Prison is of course necessary, but rarely helps rehabilitate and prevent repeat offending. 

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

Scary stuff. The right to be tried by a jury a key plank in a free society.

[sadoldgit]

There has been talk about doing away with juries for some time now, in complicated fraud cases for example. 
Cases, especially serious sexual cases are taking an age to get to court leading to some victims walking away. Something needs to be done.

[hypochondriac]

7 minutes ago, egg said:

Ha! The correct solution imo is to have a complete rethink of our sentence structure, and invest heavily into a rehabilitative justice system. Prison is of course necessary, but rarely helps rehabilitate and prevent repeat offending. 

Fine as long as we agree that this proposal is not the answer. Imagine what certain groups would be saying if Farage had proposed this. No surprise that Starmer wants to give more power to judges though.

Edited 1 hour ago by hypochondriac

[egg]

11 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Fine as long as we agree that this proposal is not the answer. Imagine what certain groups would be saying if Farage had proposed this. No surprise that Starmer wants to give more power to judges though.

Different issues entirely. Whatever Trial system we have, our sentencing approach needs overhaul. 

[hypochondriac]

28 minutes ago, egg said:

Different issues entirely. Whatever Trial system we have, our sentencing approach needs overhaul. 

Like you say it's a separate issue and not one being proposed at the moment unlike this one.

Edited 53 minutes ago by hypochondriac