Our meeting proved to be very different and thought provoking. Paul, who has been a Magistrate for 27 years introduced himself and Sue. She is a Probation Officer and she told us of the background to her work and training.
We were all given a headline from a make believe newspaper. It featured the case of a frail 75 year old pensioner being treated by paramedics for a suspected broken wrist, when a jobless heroin addict called John Dunn, a 23 year old, pounced on her and the paramedic and stole the ambulance medical bag. He was subsequently arrested.
We were each given a piece of paper and asked to say whether we thought he should go to jail or or not. Paul then went on to detail the other alternatives which are open to him and his fellow magistrates. They work very closely with the Probation Service to establish his background and any information which would help them decide the appropriate action. It turned out that he had no convictions of this sort before which meant that they could only impose certain judgement ie 6 months jail which meant only serving 2-3 months.. Apparently he had not injured either of the two ladies.
Sue, the Probation Officer then explained how she interviews on a 1 to1 basis the person involved for 1 - 1 1/2 hours to establish the background to the case. Years of experience helps her to establish what happened and not rely on newspaper headlines.
Paul then has a meeting with Sue to establish all the facts. He said rehabilitation is all important - some youngsters go into jail and mix with hardened criminals and end up on release turning into thugs themselves.
In this case, it was the young man's first crime of this nature, he was very remorseful and wanted to apologise to the two ladies. He also said it was a "spur of the moment thing". It was thought community service would be a more appropriate sentence in this case. This was not an easy alternative. On top of the community work, he would have to attend probation appointments each week and prove he was looking for work. Lots of good work is done, mostly hard and physical and strictly supervised work - examples recently quoted of work in the fens clearing ditches and repairing and redecoration of village halls etc was given by Paul.
Incidentally, this charge will stay on his record for many years and if he offends again, this would result in much harsher sentencing next time.
He said it is very much cheaper for state funds as Community Service versus Prison is one quarter of the cost.
At the end of the talk, he asked us to put on to the pieces of paper he handed out earlier, if we still thought the man should go to prison - I think quite a few ladies changed their minds!
Our next meeting is on Wednesday 8 May at 7.30pm in the Community Centre. This will be our Birthday meeting and so after discussing our National Resolution, we will be enjoying a buffet kindly supplied by the Committee followed by social time - a chance to have a good natter with friends.
Visitors are always welcome and if there are any queries, please contact Veronica Brett, President on 01508 493029 or Lesley Sanders, Secretary on 01508 492155.
Shirley Shackshaft
