Concurrent sentences

[ChocolateFrog]

What's the point?

Seems an open goal for Reform types.

The story that prompted the question. I wouldn't be upset to see his sentences run consecutively.

https://news.sky.com/story/drug-dealer-on-e-bike-w...

[bitchstewie]

I'm sure other people will have more legal clue but it might be worth looking for the sentencing remarks for the Southport murderer as there were similar questions about that and the judge did what I thought was a very thorough and easy to understand explanation of why concurrent v consecutive.

[QuickQuack]

Not everything runs concurrently, some do run consecutively, this is the official explanation of how it works and how judges use sentencing guidelines:

https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/news/item/tot...

You may disagree with some elements of it, but that's how it currently functions. I think some may argue that in some cases, the sentences are unduly lenient, but that's a different dicussion.

[MrBogSmith]

If you want to build and fund 2x (guess) prison places it can be changed.

[mac96]

I have no idea whether this is part of the official thinking, but it seems to me that if someone is caught and comes before a court for the first time after say 5 offences in one event, then there is a greater chance of them not reoffending than someone who has committed the same 5 offences over a longer time frame, and been caught and punished after each one.

The second has proved that he is likely to continue to offend, whenever he is out of prison, until he gets to old for it. He had his chance of learning his lesson after the first offence and conviction.

The first only got that chance after 5 offences, so it seems reasonable to not give him a total sentence equal to the total given to the second offender over the same number of offences.

[BikeBikeBIke]

It only happens where each offence arises from the same facts, plus the principle of totality.

The critical thing for me is that if they ever won an appeal on one of the sentences the other offences stay in place. So it's worth prosecuting for multiple offences even if you know they're going to be concurrent because they're arising from the same "event".

[Southerner]

The judge does at least appear to have a working bullsh*t-o-meter:

Kristian Cavanagh, defending, said Green had demonstrated remorse "in his own way" and night terrors and panic attacks which he suffered were a reflection of how he felt.

Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham told Green: "Whilst you are undoubtedly sorry to be caught, I do not detect any real remorse."

[Panamax]

Imagine three convictions running concurrently.

You appeal one of the sentences and get acquitted. You're still in jail for the other two. So not pointless at all.

[crofty1984]

This thread is interesting.

[JuanCarlosFandango]

It helps them sound tough when they're not. It's like when they say a gang was jailed for 40 years when in fact 10 people were jailed for an average of 4 years each.