By David Furness
The Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has called for the abolition of new ‘two-tier’ rules that direct judges to provide special treatment to criminals from ethnic, religious, and gender minorities.
The Sentencing Council has issued new guidance (due to take effect from 1st April), requiring judges and magistrates to consider the backgrounds of offenders when determining sentences.
Courts have been advised to consider requesting a pre-sentence report for offenders who identify as transgender or belong to an ethnic minority.
If transgender people receive reduced sentences, expect more to claim they are transgender before facing trial. Furthermore, if offenders are not transgender, then they could face a harsher punishment—this is discrimination!
The ethnic British population is now a minority in London and many other towns and cities in England. Therefore, will the courts consider this factor in their pre-sentence reports?
The probation service prepares pre-sentence reports to provide courts with information that may lead to alternatives to a prison sentence, such as suspending a sentence or assigning a community punishment.
The Justice Secretary expressed her dissatisfaction with the changes: “The updated guidelines issued today do not reflect my views or those of this Government.” She added: “As someone from an ethnic minority background, I do not support any differential treatment under the law for anyone.“
The case of the Former Labour MP Mike Amesbury illustrates a recent example of two-tier justice. He was given a 10-week prison sentence for repeatedly punching a man in an unprovoked attack. However, Chester Crown Court suspended his sentence for two years following an appeal.
In Southport, Axel Rudakubana committed a horrific crime by murdering three young girls and attempting to murder ten others. This incident is considered one of the most shocking crimes in British history. Understandably, many people were upset and took to social media to express their anger. The police stated that some of these social media posts incited rioting, leading to lengthy jail sentences for several individuals, ranging from three to seven years.
Writing hurtful words can result in years of imprisonment, while beating someone senseless in an unprovoked attack may lead to a suspended sentence—this is an example of two-tier justice!
Other mitigating factors
Judges and magistrates take into account several mitigating factors when determining a sentence. These include chronic health conditions, pregnancy, and the status of being a primary caregiver for a dependent relative. The Sentencing Council has now insisted that transgenderism, poverty and ethnicity must be mitigating factors.
A spokesperson for the Sentencing Council emphasized that the guidance on ethnicity is about the importance of addressing disparities in sentencing outcomes. This guidance means that if individuals who are not ethnically British have a higher rate of conviction for a specific crime, it is assumed that this disparity must be due to discrimination. These assumptions are central to the Sentencing Council’s new rules.
A question of background
The new guidance comes in response to the Sentencing Council’s request that judges consider more lenient sentences for offenders from disadvantaged backgrounds. For the first time, this guidance outlines specific mitigating factors related to these disadvantages that courts should consider before determining a sentence.
The guidelines on ‘difficult or deprived background or personal circumstance’ state that these factors include poverty, low educational attainment, experience of discrimination and insecure housing.
So, the sentence a criminal receives could depend on the grades they achieved in their exams—the lower the grades, the lower the sentence!
The Sentencing Council is an independent judicial body, meaning that the Justice Secretary cannot overturn its decisions; she can only recommend changes. Changing this would require a change in the law, but the Labour Party is unlikely to pursue that while Two-Tier Kier Starmer is in charge.
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