Straw warns of media influence on sentencing
Judges and magistrates have a “responsibility” to ignore sensationalist media coverage and not exacerbate the rising prison population, the justice secretary has said.
Jack Straw said sentencers did not operate in a vacuum and it appeared that calls in the media for tougher sentencing and the return of the death penalty had a “tangible effect” on the prison population.
Mr Straw said he was moved to speak out after a string of high-profile guilty verdicts, accompanied by tabloid campaigns for capital punishment.
Addressing the Guardian criminal justice summit, he said: “In the last few weeks the perpetrators of several unrelated and horrific crimes have been brought to justice.
“The impact of such heinous criminals being sentenced in such a short space of time can not only be measured in column inches but in the fact that this precipitated calls for the return of the death penalty.
“In turn, and while one cannot be certain, this mood appears to have had a tangible impact on the prison population.”
Mr Straw has previously defended judges’ and magistrates’ independence, but acknowledged they are aware of the media and public climate.
“I think this has been particularly felt in the recent [Gary] Newlove and [Garry] Weddell cases, both of which involved crimes committed while on bail. It would be unrealistic to think that sentencers could be completely inured against the coverage of these cases,” he said.
The justice secretary is concerned media coverage of crime exaggerates the problem and distorts the public’s perception.
He said: “A free press is part of any effective democracy… but there is a responsibility on politicians and sentencers not to overreact in such circumstances.”
Mr Straw pointed to the British crime survey, which suggests crime has fallen by 30 per cent over the past decade but said this had not been reflected in the media.
Moreover, he rejected journalists’ claims that they are representing public opinion when calling for harsher sentencing, arguing only six per cent of the public want to send more offenders to prison.
