Britain is set to take over the chairmanship of the Council of Europe soon and as a result they are considering their priorities for reforming the European court of human rights at Strasbourg. This is why so many eyes are looking towards the UK right now as the political class skirmishes over a proposal that would institute mandatory sentencing for juveniles found carrying knives.
British home secretary Theresa May and Justice Secretary Ken Clarke are having a fine old row. Earlier this October the two clashed when Theresa May clashed with Clarke during the Conservative party conference. A conference where he called her comments about the Human Rights Act both “laughable” and “childlike.” As you may imagine their relationship has been a bit chilly since.
At the core of this particular conflict is the Justice Secretary’s belief that mandatory sentencing is rarely effective, and that applying such sentencing to youth offenders is out of line. He has further stated that the occurrence of mandatory sentences in British law are actually an innovation adopted from our side of the ocean here in America. Clarke quarrels with the basic assumption behind mandatory sentencing which he sees as an assumption that judges can’t be trusted to sentence cases based on the individual circumstances of each case.
Clarke is reported by the UK Guardian as having said:
‘We have – because of the seriousness that we attach to knife crime and we think a strong message has got to be sent to people indulging in knife crime – agreed such a mandatory sentence for adults,’ said Clarke.
But, he added: ‘This is being tabled and that is the government’s proposal. The idea that mandatory sentences for certain types of offence, should be extended to young offenders, to children, to juveniles is a bit of a leap for the British judicial system.’
This is a hot topic in England following in the wake of the riots they experienced last August. A topic the justice secretary also touched on. Criticism made in hindsight is always easy. Dina Rickman brings us the pertinent quote in her piece on The Huffington Post:
‘It’s usually easy in the Dog and Duck 48 hours later, to start saying what the police should have done in an unexpected and violent situation… It was totally unexpected and the scale was a surprise to all of us.’
Of course Clarke has also made public comments that the rioters we part of a criminal “underclass,” who exhibited a “irresponsible feckless reaction” from those involved. He also stated that the percentage of young people involved was lower because they have “not had time to get a conviction yet.”
No matter how you cut it things are pretty dicey in the UK right now for juveniles. If this goes through kids will suffer jail time for carrying a knife. While I doubt many would argue that kids with knives is something to endorse, the act remains that summary incarceration is not the solution.
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