Regarding your article (Lawyers attack dangerous decision to halt Sentencing Council guidelines, 1 April), David Lammy, in his 2017 review into the treatment of, and outcomes for, Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) individuals in the criminal justice system, said: “The analysis published by the MoJ in 2016 highlights a potential risk in this process: a significant proportion of decisions made within a sentencing judge’s discretion, may result in that discretion being exercised in one direction for BAME defendants (a longer sentence) and in the other direction for White defendants (a shorter sentence).”
He also said: “Sentencing decisions need greater scrutiny, but judges must also be equipped with the information they need. It is the role of the Probation Service to provide judges with pre-sentence reports … These reports … may be particularly important for shedding light on individuals from backgrounds unfamiliar to the judge.”
