The judiciary has asked magistrates’ courts to delay sending some criminals to prison in the coming weeks because of the unprecedented overcrowding crisis.The direction to court managers comes as officials battle daily to find cells for offenders, ahead of a new release strategy in September.In the instruction, a senior judge urged court managers to delay the sentencing of some offenders if they are likely to be jailed, but are currently on bail.Official figures show that the number of prison beds available across England and Wales has fallen to the point where there are now only a few available in each institution.As of Friday morning, there were 88,234 people in jails. The population had risen by 738 the past fortnight, leaving about 1,100 spare beds.Many of the new inmates are either convicted rioters or suspects being held on remand before facing trial for their alleged part in disorder that occurred across England and Northern Ireland in late July and early August. The direction to magistrates’ courts managers, sent on Wednesday, came from Lord Justice Green, a senior judge who overseas the workload of the courts.He asked local officials to carefully consider how they were scheduling cases ahead of the Ministry of Justice’s plan for more early releases, which is set to come into force on 10 September.The judge wrote that local court managers should review all cases listed for sentence up to and including 6 September where the defendant is currently on bail. If a jail sentence is a possible outcome, consideration should be given to rescheduling the hearing as soon as possible, but not earlier than 10 September. “The following direction is made …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnThe judiciary has asked magistrates’ courts to delay sending some criminals to prison in the coming weeks because of the unprecedented overcrowding crisis.The direction to court managers comes as officials battle daily to find cells for offenders, ahead of a new release strategy in September.In the instruction, a senior judge urged court managers to delay the sentencing of some offenders if they are likely to be jailed, but are currently on bail.Official figures show that the number of prison beds available across England and Wales has fallen to the point where there are now only a few available in each institution.As of Friday morning, there were 88,234 people in jails. The population had risen by 738 the past fortnight, leaving about 1,100 spare beds.Many of the new inmates are either convicted rioters or suspects being held on remand before facing trial for their alleged part in disorder that occurred across England and Northern Ireland in late July and early August. The direction to magistrates’ courts managers, sent on Wednesday, came from Lord Justice Green, a senior judge who overseas the workload of the courts.He asked local officials to carefully consider how they were scheduling cases ahead of the Ministry of Justice’s plan for more early releases, which is set to come into force on 10 September.The judge wrote that local court managers should review all cases listed for sentence up to and including 6 September where the defendant is currently on bail. If a jail sentence is a possible outcome, consideration should be given to rescheduling the hearing as soon as possible, but not earlier than 10 September. “The following direction is made …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
