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Friday, November 27, 1970
!
A provision in the bill empowers a court to attach to a suspended
sentence such conditions as the court thinks fit, any breach of them making
the offender liable to be dealt with in the same way as if he had committed
a further offence.
But no suspended sentence may be passed if a probation order is
made on that occasion in respect of another offence.
Commenting on the proposed introduction of the suspended sentence,
a Judiciary spokesman said the suspended sentence gave a judge a rather
wider choice when sentencing an offender.
At present, judges were not infrequently faced with the difficult
decision whether the sentence should reflect the seriousness of the offence,
in which case imprisonment would be appropriate, or whether it should be
related to the particular circumstances of the offender, in which case
probation or some other sentence might be appropriate.
"The power to award a sentence of imprisonment and then suspend
it will allow a judge in such cases to impose a sentence which reflects
the seriousness of the offence, but at the same time to exercise leniency
if the circumstances of the offender so warrant," the spokesman said.
"The Chief Justice feels that any course which may avoid the necessity
of sending a person to prison and deter him from committing a further offence,
which will inevitably result in him being sent to prison, seems to be a step
well worth taking and trying."
Clause 3 will allow a court to impose special conditions on a person
whom it admits to bail, and will give the police power to arrest a person
who breaks bail or who is reasonably suspected to be likely to break bail.
/One section
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