A dangerous driver’s sentencing became the first to be delayed under a new edict imposed over concerns about prison overcrowding.
Jimmy-Paul Nunn, 37, was due to be sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Monday (October 16) after pleading guilty last month to speeding away from police officers on the M40.
But the London man, who is on bail, was not in the dock of courtroom four at 10.10am on Monday morning.
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Defending, Emma Richards said her client was currently in hospital and it was not known when he would be discharged.
It was unlikely the case would have gone ahead anyway, as all sentencings where defendants are on bail are – from today (October 16) – being adjourned for four weeks.
The move comes amid growing concern about crowding in prisons, with senior judge Lord Justice Edis last week telling circuit judges that sentencing of criminals who are currently on bail should be adjourned from Monday, The Times reported.
The UK’s prison population has increased substantially since the Covid pandemic in 2020 and, according to the latest figures, there are now 88,225 prisoners – with space for only a few more hundred prisons.
Last week, Thames Valley police and crime commissioner Matthew Barber told the Oxford Mail: “The challenge of prison places is real, but delaying sentencing for serious offences cannot be the solution.
“Justice delayed is justice denied. The criminal justice system is already too slow, and the idea of deferring sentencing would have a huge impact on victims and could increase the risk to the public.”
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The Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk, will address the House of Commons later today on plans to address pressures in England and Wales’ prisons.
It is expected that the government will bring forward laws to send foreign prisoners home earlier into their sentence.
Currently, criminals from overseas can be removed up to a year before the end of their sentence. But ministers want to bring that forward by six months.
Over the weekend, the Justice Secretary used an article in the Sunday Telegraph to preview arguments that sending offenders to prison for less serious crimes was the ‘wrong use’ of the system.
He suggested that, instead, would-be prisoners could clean up local neighbourhoods, plant woodland or scrub graffiti off walls.
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