I increasingly look at long sentences and think: jeez, haven't we got enough people in prison? Couldn't we knock a couple of years of that one? If we did that with all the long sentences, couldn't we shut a couple of prisons?
He's not going to actually serve 14 years, is he? Over here, he would likely be out in less than 10 (assuming he doesn't get the sentence reduced on appeal).
The issue with mass incarceration is grounded in mandatory minimum and the like, not necessarily "headline" sentences.
It would be 7, I think, minus a few weeks on an electronic tag, assuming he gets early release first time.
Agree about minimum sentences- just saying the long sentences are something I've noticed recently.
The main mandatory minimum I would think is the 7 years for the third domestic burglary conviction.
Mind you, we could be narrowing the gap with America.
The people who mucked up the Department of Education are reuniting in the Department of Justice:
Charlie Taylor, chief executive of the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL), has left the organisation to join the Ministry of Justice, TES has learned.
The move will reunite Mr Taylor with Michael Gove, the justice secretary. Mr Gove appointed the former headteacher as his behaviour expert in 2011 during his time running the Department for Education.
Mr Taylor's departure comes just weeks after the announcement that the NCTL would sell off its £28 million conference centre in Nottingham as part of wider cost-saving measures.
It is understood that Mr Taylor will oversee the youth justice brief and seek to inform policy on young offenders, drawing on his expertise as former headteacher of The Willows, a special school for children with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties.
He is treading a well-worn path, joining Sir Theodore Agnew, who moved to the MoJ as a non-executive board member in June after leaving the same role at the DfE, and Gabriel Milland, who left the DfE to become head of external communications at the MoJ.
Hadn't seen that question until now, but I'm not aware of anyone who deliberately recruits Aspergers' individuals. That said, all banks and hedge funds DO actively recruit people who are preternaturally good at maths, and there is some overlap.
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