Criminal Justice updates, UK and California

PILA Bulletin: 17 October 2012

Under the new UK Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, anyone with a historic conviction for certain decriminalised consensual sex offences can apply to have these records deleted.
 
Applicants must first fill out an online form, following which, the Home Office, the Courts Tribunals Service, the Association of Chief Police Officers and a dedicated team of caseworkers will consider each case and make recommendations to the Home Secretary who will have the final decision.  
 
Successful applicants will have their records amended so the offence will no longer appear on a
criminal records certificate or be referred to in future court proceedings. Click here to read more.
 
In other UK news, Lord Justice Davis recently dismissed an appeal by two prisoners who claimed that slopping out in prisons violated their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. Bulletin readers will remember a previous article on the initial decision. The Daily Mail reported that Lord Justice Davies was critical of the impact of human rights laws and quoted the Judge as saying that it was “more or less unthinkable that an action of this kind could have troubled this
court, even a few years ago, but the European Convention on Human Rights has changed that”. Click here to read the article and another here.
 
The absence of in cell sanitation in many Irish prisons means that “slopping out” is a daily practice for many Irish prisoners. Click here to view an Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) briefing from January 2011 on the practice of slopping out in the Irish prison system. 
 

In youth justice news, the US state of California has signed into law the Fair Sentencing for Youth Act(known as Senate Bill 9), giving hope to nearly 300 young offenders sentenced to life without parole.  The Act allows young offenders sentenced to life without parole to ask the sentencing court to review their case and consider a new sentence permitting parole after serving 25 years in prison. Elizabeth Calvin, senior child rights advocate at Human Rights Watch, says the law is indicative of a more “human system of sentencing youth offenders” . 

Article 37 of the UN Convention on the rights of the Child, to which the US is a signatory, prohibits the sentence of life without parole on minors.

Click here to see a Human Rights Watch press release on the Act

In Irish youth justice news, the Minister for Justice yesterday published a report by the Inspector of Prisons, Judge Michael Reilly, of an inspection of St Patrick’s Institution. The report raised serious concerns about the culture within the institution and found that the rights of some of the young people detained were being either ignored or violated.

Click here to read a journal.ie article and an Irish Times article 

Click here to read a Department of Justice press release 

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