Prison sentences face possible changes

Government consults on criminal justice proposals

Should the jail term you get be the sentence you actually serve – or should you be up for early release halfway through if you’re well-behaved?

That’s one of the questions being asked by the Department of Home Affairs as part of a review of the Island’s criminal justice system.

A consultation published online this week poses a number of questions about the way courts deal with those who’ve committed crimes.

The document also asks whether those convicted of lesser crimes really need to go to prison.

The consultation on new laws to implement the Criminal Justice Strategy runs until mid-September.

In it, the department asks whether people should be eligible for parole halfway through their prison terms, or whether the sentence they get is the minimum time they serve.

There’s also a proposal to treat 17 year olds as children so they appear as juveniles in court – at present most other countries only treat people as adults if they’re 18 and over.

You can read the full consultation document, and comment on it, on the government’s website gov.im