I'm obviously naive, I thought that the courts decided the sentence for various crimes. But no, that's just for show. The real justice system lies in the parole boards.
Once a person has been found guilty of a most severe and heinous crime, sentenced to be locked away for 8 years, 9 years, or life (which isn't) then the real bargaining begins.
Providing you don't commit any more crimes in Prison, or no-one reports you for committing any crimes in prison, you can front up to the parole board and plead for mercy. Not the same mercy as a murderer failed to give to their victim, but the kind of liberal mercy that says "guys, I only needed a couple of months to think through my evil deeds, and I've come to the conclusion that what I may have done through implication was wrong and, not that I'm guilty, but maybe this thing shouldn't have happened, and now that I've fully rehabilitated myself, you can let me go early."
For crimes of violence and sexual abuse, for crimes such as committed by Capill and Shipton, this is absurd. And we've recently seen how people who abused positions of trust, and traded on their supposed integrity, suddenly try to sound penitent and contrite. And even if they were genuine, that's not the point. They are in jail to do the time for the crime, the full time. If they find themselves ready for release early, having finished their rehab homework with time to spare, then they can move into the planning phase. Planning how, on their release they will spend their entire lives making up the damage they have done. Given the enormity of their crimes, I'd say they are going to need a lot of time for planning.
And the parole board need to narrow their scope. They are not set up properly to overturn the findings of the court. Prisoners can try for an appeal, and that process is handled, but not a retrial in front of a parole board, that gets them out in half the time. And even if the Parole board rejects the application - it does so after it causes a whole pile of anguish for the victim(s) and their families.
What I'd like to know, given the "extensive" psych profiles done etc, how much time and money tax payers are putting into this process. The money could go into rehab programs, victim support and speeding up the trials in the first place.
Here's a very nice election policy for voters to get their heads around:
"As a party that agrees justice for victims as fundamental to the court process; as a party that accepts courts are the best place to hand down an appropriate sentence; as a party dedicated to focusing limited financial resources in to areas that will help victims and reduce repeat offenses - we the XXXX party will END PAROLE on all crimes of violence and sexual abuse."
I could give you around 5 good, recent links that prove my point so well, but frankly, if you can't wrap your head around this simple concept, and you haven't been reading the papers, you are a lost cause anyway.
And to all the others that managed to read this far: You know I make sense.
Related Link: Just about anything in the papers to do with parole hearings recently
Once a person has been found guilty of a most severe and heinous crime, sentenced to be locked away for 8 years, 9 years, or life (which isn't) then the real bargaining begins.
Providing you don't commit any more crimes in Prison, or no-one reports you for committing any crimes in prison, you can front up to the parole board and plead for mercy. Not the same mercy as a murderer failed to give to their victim, but the kind of liberal mercy that says "guys, I only needed a couple of months to think through my evil deeds, and I've come to the conclusion that what I may have done through implication was wrong and, not that I'm guilty, but maybe this thing shouldn't have happened, and now that I've fully rehabilitated myself, you can let me go early."
For crimes of violence and sexual abuse, for crimes such as committed by Capill and Shipton, this is absurd. And we've recently seen how people who abused positions of trust, and traded on their supposed integrity, suddenly try to sound penitent and contrite. And even if they were genuine, that's not the point. They are in jail to do the time for the crime, the full time. If they find themselves ready for release early, having finished their rehab homework with time to spare, then they can move into the planning phase. Planning how, on their release they will spend their entire lives making up the damage they have done. Given the enormity of their crimes, I'd say they are going to need a lot of time for planning.
And the parole board need to narrow their scope. They are not set up properly to overturn the findings of the court. Prisoners can try for an appeal, and that process is handled, but not a retrial in front of a parole board, that gets them out in half the time. And even if the Parole board rejects the application - it does so after it causes a whole pile of anguish for the victim(s) and their families.
What I'd like to know, given the "extensive" psych profiles done etc, how much time and money tax payers are putting into this process. The money could go into rehab programs, victim support and speeding up the trials in the first place.
Here's a very nice election policy for voters to get their heads around:
"As a party that agrees justice for victims as fundamental to the court process; as a party that accepts courts are the best place to hand down an appropriate sentence; as a party dedicated to focusing limited financial resources in to areas that will help victims and reduce repeat offenses - we the XXXX party will END PAROLE on all crimes of violence and sexual abuse."
I could give you around 5 good, recent links that prove my point so well, but frankly, if you can't wrap your head around this simple concept, and you haven't been reading the papers, you are a lost cause anyway.
And to all the others that managed to read this far: You know I make sense.
Related Link: Just about anything in the papers to do with parole hearings recently