Petition Magistrates sentencing powers should be increased, in conjunction with legislation to keep first time and non vilent offenders out of prison

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Magistrates sentencing powers should increase to 12 months imprisonment. This would allow more cases to be held swiftly, easing a backlog of Crown Court cases, and the burden of keeping those on remand awaiting trial or sentencing.

In conjunction with this, via legislation, it should be common practise that first-time and non-violent offenders have jail terms suspended. These sentences should be substituted with meaningful sentences that can be served in the community as opposed to being jailed.

There should be obvious exceptions as to where this cannot be applied, and the judiciary must be able to apply exceptions they deem fit in extreme circumstances.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

4 signatures

Progress of the petition towards its next target: 4 of 10,000 signatures required to get a government response

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10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Date closed 13 September 2012
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