Pubdate: Sun, 05 Jun 2005
Source: Herald Sun (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 Herald and Weekly Times
Contact:  http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/187
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

WISE, BUT LISTENING

JUSTICE is supposed to be blind, not short-sighted.

It is supposed to be blind in that it favours neither wealth nor power
and is dispensed without regard to influences beyond the evidence
presented in the courtroom.

Each case must be dealt with on its merits in an environment free of
political pressures -- we expect wisdom and demand impartiality from
our fiercely independent judges.

On the other hand, the courts do not operate in a social vacuum. They
function for the people and are answerable to them in the long run.
They administer laws voted on by politicians, and they, in drawing up
legislation, ignore public opinion at their peril.

As a link in this chain, the judiciary has a duty to make itself aware
of the mood of the society it serves. Judges are beyond touch, but
need not be out of touch.

In fact, it would do no harm for them to have access to the
Perceptions of Justice Survey, in which 90 per cent of respondents
thought sentences in Victoria were too soft. This is the survey the
State Government tried to keep secret, the one revealed in the Sunday
Herald Sun today after months of Freedom of Information haggling.

The people think the judges are too soft on criminals.

While the courts have sharp tools in the form of weighty custodial
sentences, the public perception is that they are not exercising them
to good effect. They fall for a sad story from the wrongdoer, but pay
insufficient heed to the crime's impact on the victim.

These are the perceptions of good people in the community -- not
malcontents or professional attention-seekers.

In an age of rampant drug-related crime, even senior citizens have
become targets in their own homes. There is no honour among criminals.
And yet those who prey on the vulnerable are set free time and again
with a slap on the wrist or after token jail terms.

Opposition Leader Robert Doyle is so concerned he has said he would
legislate for mandatory minimum sentences for serious crime, thereby
putting the squeeze on the judiciary's time-honoured discretion in
such matters. He is bound to have public support, though many
shortcomings in the criminal justice system lie outside the control of
judges.

They range from unduly heavy workloads in some courts to poor back-up
and inadequate staffing levels, particularly for Supreme Court judges.
The snail's pace at which many cases move, often caused by defence
lawyers, has to be addressed. And the concept of rehabilitation has to
be made more transparent -- an offender deemed capable of
rehabilitation is likely to receive a lighter sentence, but is
rehabilitation a reality or a myth in Victorian prisons?

It is right that judges remain aloof from politics, but not that they
turn a deaf ear to the public's uneasiness, as expressed through the
Government's own Perceptions of Justice Survey.

As a profession, they are neither beyond reproach nor above the
community's concerns. But they are human and therefore fallible.

Those who already serve well will serve better through engagement with
a community suspicious of many court outcomes. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake