Reports Call For 'On-The-Spot' Police Station Justice

A new report has called on the government to allow judges to deliver "on-the-spot" justice, working from inside police stations.

Think tank Policy Exchange has produced a series of recommendations, which they call "a new vision for summary justice".

The 'Future Courts' report recommends:

The recruitment of 10,000 new magistrates, taking overall numbers to 33,000: They would sit in police stations and other community buildings, oversee out-of-court disposals, review offenders’ sentences on an on-going basis, and spend a third of their volunteering time undertaking community engagement work.

A more diverse magistracy: courts sitting during evenings and weekends will encourage younger, professional people to apply, but more action is needed. Instead of automatic retirement at 70, a new ‘tenure period’ for magistrates of 10 years should be implemented, creating greater turnover – and polices should be enacted to specifically target younger and more ethnically diverse recruits.

Greater court innovation: The Ministry of Justice, the Judicial College and the Magistrates’ Association should devise a new training package for 500 or so ‘problem solving’ magistrates and judges, specialising in dealing with people with drug and alcohol addiction.

The creation of new ‘Justice Hubs’: Court buildings currently house an average of six courtrooms. As the overall footprint of the court estate is reduced, the report recommends the creation of much larger courthouses, containing around 50 courtrooms. Newly-built or converted ‘Justice Hubs’, located to serve major population areas and co-located with other justice agencies, would accommodate different criminal courts (e.g. magistrates and Crown Courts), civil courts and tribunals under the same roof, as well as housing the full range of justice services and custody facilities.

Policy Exchange argue that locating magistrates in police stations would deliver swifter justice, dramatically reducing the time it takes to punish criminals.

They claim there is currently a two month delay from the time an offender is charged by the police to the sentence being handed down in a magistrates’ court, a delay they argue weakens the power of punishments and does little to change the behaviour of offenders.

The full report can be found the Policy Exchange website

(MH)