Cruel and Unusual Punishment

The smoke has cleared, the dust has settled and targeted areas are returning back to normal, but it is time for the 2,770 people arrested in the riots to receive their punishment.

Harsh Sentencing?

Student Nicholas Robert, 23, was sentenced to six months in prison on August 11th for stealing a crate of water worth £3.50. He had no previous criminal record.

Wandsworth Council served an eviction notice to a family in Clapham Junction because their son was charged over his involvement in the South London riots. The heavy-handed punishment was okayed by Prime Minister David Cameron, who said people who “loot and pillage their own community” should be evicted from council houses.

Jordan Blackshaw, 21, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, both from Cheshire, Greater Manchester, were given four years for encouraging riots on Facebook even though the riots they apparently incited never even happened.

Outrage

Campaigners and the general public have been outraged, suggesting that the sentences being handed out simply do not match the crimes.

Director of Campaigns for The Howard League of Penal Reform, Andrew Neilson, said: “We know the courts are swamped with cases, and handing down hurried and overly punitive sentences will only result in many criminal appeals, which will act as a further drag on the system. Beyond the impact on the courts, we have prisons which are already over-brimming and will struggle to manage this influx of people."

These are legitimate points raised. People that have committed heinous crimes deserve that valuable cell space more than a woman due to serve five months for receiving a pair of shorts that were looted by someone else. So this rampage of jail sentences hurts us as much as the original riots.

Obviously no-one believes that most of the rioters should not face consequences for their actions but these were criminal acts committed under extraordinary circumstances, the likes of which our generation have never seen and hopefully won't see again, but it's the job of the prosecutors to make sure the punishment fits the crime.

Nick Clegg suggests making people convicted of rioting face their victims. It can’t be too lenient - let some first time offenders clean up the streets they tried to destroy and do community service to pay back the communities they hurt instead of throwing them in jail.

By Simone Barclay

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