SENTENCING POLICY

Not for the first time, the erratic and inconsistent sentencing policy of
the courts has provoked public dismay this week. On Tuesday, a 20-year-old
heroin addict, jailed for nine years in June for stealing a tourist's
handbag containing IEP10,000 cash and jewellery, had her sentence reduced
to six years by the Court of Criminal Appeal. Mr Justice O'Flaherty said
that handbag snatching was like a cancer in society and had to be stamped
out. The court, he said, was sending the word out "loud and clear" that
people involved in handbag snatches would get exemplary sentences from now
on. Sabrina Walsh of Ballymun, Dublin had appealed to the court against the
severity of her original sentence.

No doubt Judge O'Flaherty, who heard details of the case which were not
reported, regarded this as the appropriate punishment for the crime. But
others will contrast the harsh treatment of Sabrina Walsh with the leniency
traditionally shown in this State towards much more serious crimes
perpetrated - often on the hapless taxpayer - by big business. It is now
abundantly clear that the laws of this State were flouted in the
AIB/Revenue affair; but there appears to be little confidence in the public
mind that any person will be brought to book - let alone accorded the kind
of custodial sentence imposed on Sabrina Walsh.

What must concern the general public about the law is the random and
inconsistent nature in which it is applied. A garda who knocked down and
killed a 28-year-old pedestrian in Co Laois last year had a six-month
prison sentence rescinded this week. As our security correspondent writes
in today's editions, cases involving death as a result of drunk driving,
tend to attract lenient sentences. In July, a Dundalk man received a
suspended sentence and a driving ban after he killed a baby in a head-on
collision while driving while drunk.

The courts often seem slow to respond to public concern about the often
haphazard nature of sentencing policy. As the chairman of the Dail
Committee of Public Accounts, Mr Jim Mitchell, pointed out this week, the
independence of the courts system often makes it slow to appreciate the
importance of accountability to the public it serves. In this regard, the
courts were not dissimilar from the Revenue Commissioners, he added.

Policy-makers can help assuage some public concerns by adopting the kind of
non-statutory guidelines for the judiciary recommended by the Law Reform
Commission in its report on sentencing policy. In general terms, these seek
to ensure that the sentence is proportionate to the crime and they list a
number of aggravating factors and mitigating factors that might be taken
into account. The intention is to provide sensible and pragmatic guidelines
for the courts in their sentencing policy. There is no other way; a
coherent and just sentencing policy is an essential component of any
criminal justice system. Without it, public confidence in the courts will
be diminished.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski