The news that offenders may be forced into the dock to be sentenced is an irrelevance (Criminals to be forced to attend sentencing in England and Wales, 30 August). We operate a criminal justice process on the brink of collapse, with a huge backlog of cases waiting to be heard – some are five years old.
Moreover, our prison system is struggling to cope with a bursting population, thousands of whom are mentally impaired and ought not to be in jail. They are not adequately treated, and the regime operated in UK prisons is largely unfit for purpose and in many respects barbaric. Therefore, to focus on cramming our institutions even more by adding to already long sentences for failure to stand in the dock is illogical, and for force to be used on those about to lose their liberty for years or life is arguably unconscionable. Justice is served by the sentence, not the display. Let’s focus on what matters, not what sounds good.
Jeremy Dein KC
London
• I see that criminals unwilling to go to court to be sentenced will be punished with longer sentences. Calls for this largely came about because of Lucy Letby, who has been jailed for the remainder of her life. I cannot quite see how this works. Do they have some new way of making such criminals live longer, in order to extend their period of incarceration?
Duncan Curtis
Shepperton, Surrey
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