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Imprisonment
With the exception of fines, imprisonment is now the most common
form of penalty imposed by the criminal courts. For some crimes,
the chief being murder, life imprisonment is a fixed penalty.
The judge has no discretion in the matter, but many life prisoners
are released on licence under the Royal Prerogative, and with
this in mind, the trial judge can indicate the minimum term
which he thinks a murderer should in fact serve.
Where there is no fixed term, there is a maximum term laid down
by statute for particular offence (Parliament has never followed
the practice prevalent in other countries of fixing minimum
terms of imprisonment) and a judge has considerable discretion
as to the term, subject to the sentence being reduced on appeal
if it is out of line with similar cases. For example, the maximum
penalty for manslaughter is life imprisonment, but the sentence
actually imposed may, according to the circumstances, be only
a few months or, exceptionally, as little as one day.
The Criminal Justice Act 1967 introduced into English law the
concept of the suspended sentence. Where imprisonment would
be an appropriate punishment, the court may impose such a sentence
but order that it is not to take effect unless the offender
commits another offence punishable by imprisonment within a
prescribed time, which must not be less than one year nor more
than two years. Thus, a person may be sentenced to six months’
imprisonment suspended for two years. If, during the two years,
he keeps free from crime punishable by imprisonment, the sentence
will never be put into effect. But if he does commit a crime
punishable by imprisonment during that period, he will be sentenced
for the second crime and the suspended sentence will also come
into effect. A suspended sentence must not be imposed unless
the punishment of imprisonment, although not actually brought
into force, would be appropriate. It must not be imposed, for
example, where a fine would be the more appropriate punishment.
Another concept introduced by the Criminal Justice Act 1967
is that of parole. On the advice of a Parole Board, the Home
Secretary may release on licence a prisoner who has served at
least one-third of his sentence, subject to a minimum of one
year.
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