ག
THE PERIODICAL REVIEW OF LONG PRISON SENTENCES
A Memorandum Presented to the Secretary of State by The Advisory Committee on the
Treatment of Offenders
Introduction
The Advisory Committee was invited to consider the arrangements, statutory and administrative, for the periodical examination of prisoners serving long sentences in overseas territories and to make recommendations for improvement of such arrangements where necessary. The advice of the committee was sought because, in recent years, Governors have from time to time requested guidance as to the principles upon which the prerogative of mercy should be exercised in particular cases. Such questions as the length of time during which a prisoner serving a life sentence should normally be expected to remain in prison, the comparative merits of fixed and indeterminate sentences and the frequency of periodical reviews of long sentences have for long exercised the minds of Governors; but the enactment, by a number of overseas legislatures, of laws corresponding to parts of the Homicide Act, 1957 has given these matters a new importance. For, under the Act persons found guilty of certain homicides are no longer sentenced to death but to life imprisonment or to fixed terms (which may be of any duration, including life) instead, and it must therefore be expected that the number of prisoners serving long sentences will increase.
Arrangements in the Overseas Territories
2. The Committee has collected information about the procedure for the periodical reviews of long sentences from all the overseas territories and it is clear that wide differences exist. Thus, whilst in practically every territory sone provision is made for periodical reviews, the definitions of the classes of prisoners eligible for such reviews vary greatly. In souc territories a long sentence is taken as one of 4 years or more. In others a sentence is not regarded as long unless it is of 7 years or more and other figures, such as 10, 6 or 3 years are also found. Again, the frequency of periodical reviews varies. In many territories (sone 15, in fact), the cases of all prisoners serving sentences of 4 years
In one territory the and over must be reviewed at quadrennial intervals. cases of all prisoners undergoing life imprisonment or preventive detention are considered once in every three months at least. the law requires that a prisoner serving a sentence of 10 years or more must have his case reviewed after 10 years. By administrative arrangements, however, the case of every prisoner serving a sentence of 7 years or more is reviewed quadrennially. In another life sentence prisoners must have scrved 15 years or, having served 10 years, have reached the age of 60,
In one territory the cases before their cases are subject to review.
In another
Τη
of all prisoners attaining the age of 60 are specially reviewed, certain territories, whilst the first review takes place after 4 years of the sentence has been served, subsequent reviews are arranged at 2 yearly, 3 yearly, or 6 monthly intervals.
13.