The Government proposes changes to sentencing and parole guidelines for serious crimes.

Serious criminals will face tougher jail sentences- A political statement rolled out on several occasions but who decides just how long someone will be locked up? And is it all political gamesmanships as prisoners’ always seem to serve a fraction of their sentence.

Prison terms are decided by Law, for example, a person found guilty of burglary could face up to 14 years in prison, however, the truth is that very few burglars are sentenced for that term.

Around one in ten people convicted of an offence that carries a custodial sentence are sent to prison, most will be fined, given community service, tagged or punished in some other way.

The person that hands out the punishment is the Judge who will be working from sentencing guidelines. The objectives of these guidelines being to provide uniformity to sentencing judgements across England and Wales.

When delivering their verdict, the Judge will look at the crime and the criminal; was there any violence or any mitigating circumstances, is the criminal a repeat offender or was it their first offence? So there can be a significant disparity for sentencing for burglary because of the surrounding factors.

Many first time offenders who show remorse will be given suspended sentences, where specific rules must be met by the offender if breached the offender may then be sent to prison.

What happens when a prison sentence is issued?

Most criminals will be sent directly to jail, and of those, the vast majority will be eligible for release when they have served 50% of the term. When released, the person will be on licence for the remainder of the term. A judge can stipulate conditions when sentencing.

Many criticise early release of prisoners, its objective to rehabilitate offenders in the community under supervision and with conditions, and to keep prison numbers down.
Not all sentencing is processed the same way.

If a criminal is guilty of a serious crime, they will not be eligible for release after half the term has been served, it will normally be around 70% of the sentence, and most criminals will then only be considered for release if approved by a parole board.

Life sentencing

If a Judge hands out a life sentence it will rarely mean life in jail, the average time spent in jail for a prisoner with a life sentence is seventeen years, if released under the approval of the parole board, the offender will be on licence and will need to comply with certain conditions of the release.

Life sentences will always be given for murder; the Judge will also decide the amount of time the prisoner will need to serve before they can be considered for parole.
It is possible for a judge to give a whole-life order where parole will not be possible, but this is very rare.

Government Changes.

These are the broad guidelines now, but the government want to change the rules surrounding the release of serious offenders, the automatic release under licence after half the sentence has been served will be scrapped, with two-thirds becoming the new duration and more criminals will be sentenced to whole-life orders for the murder of children.

To help the prison system cope, the government have promised to create an additional 10,000 prison places, and investment will also be made to improve rehabilitation in prisons and to support the probation services once an offender has been released.

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