Ruling needs a quick response - Suspended sentences

YESTERDAY’S High Court decision to declare the practice of allowing courts to activate suspended sentences is illegal will have a serious and possibly a limiting impact on the criminal justice system.

It creates an unwelcome lacuna that requires an immediate response, one that ensures that the courts’ options are not constrained. That response must ensure that those convicted of wrongdoing but given the latitude of a suspended sentence are still answerable to the courts.

Unfortunately, this ruling will feed the impression that the law is stacked in favour of criminals even if that perception has been strongly and persistently challenged by social workers and those working on behalf of the demographic so very overrepresented in prosecutions taken by the State.