Magistrate criticises mandatory sentencing Source: AAP | Published: Thursday March 9, 2:32 PM A magistrate working under the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing regime has publicly criticised aspects of the controversial laws. Magistrate Alasdair McGregor today said with courts no longer having discretion in sentencing for certain crimes, police were being forced to take responsibility for dispensing mercy instead of the government. But he also admitted he may have been too lenient in sentencing property offenders before the laws were introduced in 1997. Under the NT's mandatory sentencing laws courts must impose set jail terms, laid out by the government, for property crimes. The Country Liberal Party (CLP) introduced mandatory sentencing in response to home burglaries in suburban Darwin. Federal Parliament is now being urged to overturn mandatory sentencing and a Senate report on the laws in Western Australia and the NT is due for release on Monday. Yesterday NT chief minister Denis Burke released an independent poll, excluding the Northern Territory, which showed that nearly 60 per cent of Australians approved of mandatory sentencing. Mr McGregor admitted that he may have been too lenient on people who had vandalised homes. 'I know the feeling is strong against ransacking, I know the feeling is strong against 'take a dozen eggs out of the fridge and put them through the kitchen fan',' he said. 'I have seen all that in court, perhaps I wasn't tough enough on it.' However, he said he did not see those cases in Katherine. Mr McGregor said jail was harshly impacting on communities outside Darwin, such as in the town of Katherine 314 kilometres south where he has worked for the past four years. 'These young men are coming back (from jail) terribly well-built, terribly well-fed and in some cases terrorising old-age pensioners,' he said. Elders in Aboriginal communities were keen to impose their own punishments on their children, he said. He suggested the government should look at paying for compensation to the victim, rather than spending money on punishment. 'Of course they (victims) want punishment but they'd also like their money back,' he said. Mr McGregor said the NT government had given the police a role in judicial considerations which it should be taking on itself. He said the laws prevented the courts from considering mercy - as required in the NT law - when handing down a sentence andclaimed the government should have taken on that responsibility. However, the police responsible for charging the suspected criminal had ended up with the role, he said. 'Quite clearly, the police are having to do what traditionally the home secretary, the chief minister and the like would be doing after they have been to court,' he told ABC local radio. 'Parliament has clearly felt that the courts were not exercising the combination of justice and mercy correctly but hasn't made very much provision for any one else exercising mercy.' Mr McGregor also revealed he had been angered by Mr Burke's claim last month, since retracted, that the justice system was totally corrupt. 'I heard the Attorney-General say that over my breakfast and I was a little bit angry when I went to work that day, but I'll say no more about that,' he said. Mr Burke, who is also Attorney-General, was forced to apologise for the claim when chief justice Brien Martin threatened to stand down over the comments. -- ********************************* Make the Hunger Site your homepage! http://www.thehungersite.com/index.html ********************************* ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
