It was reported in the news a couple of days ago that a super complaint has been lodged against the police in England and Wales in respect of their handling of sexual offence cases (The Guardian 15.12).  Not long before that article was published, another gave us the news that prisoners have erroneously  been released from prison (BBC 5.11).  These stories sandwiched another, that concerning the abolition of trial by jury for offences attracting anything less than three years imprisonment (BBC 02.12).  The rationale behind these proposals is the reduction of the appalling backlog of court cases awaiting trial.

These stories beg the very simple question what an earth is going on with the criminal justice system?  To say it is in crises would be an understatement.  The system is broken, and it is hard to see how it can be fixed but perhaps it isn’t difficult to see how it got into its present state.

The justice process is complex and above all else, for it to work effectively, it is costly and by its very nature, it is inefficient.  And this has presented problems for successive governments over decades.  The conundrum, how to deliver a cost effective, efficient criminal justice system.  Put simply the mantra seems to have been how do you achieve cheap justice?

The various components of the criminal justice system are interdependent, when one part fails, it has a knock-on effect to the others.  Each part of the criminal justice system has seen so called efficiency and economy drives over the decades, and the consequence has been a cut in service across the board. 

How many times do we hear complaints that the police just don’t turn up when a crime is reported or that they are disinterested?  But have a look at the sustained cuts in budgets, the burgeoning costs of policing as the social and technological worlds change around us and the constant reprioritising of policing efforts and, it is little wonder that there is no one to turn up or that the crime you are reporting just isn’t important enough. Or maybe the people that do the policing are simply just worn out, disenchanted and frustrated by a system that fails their efforts at every turn.  They even conspire to fail themselves.

And what of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)? Understaffed and under crude directions to enforce tests and codes to minimise court cases as best they can.  With a little bit of research, you can find complaints against the CPS relating to the changing of the threshold in relation to sexual offences. To some extent CPS lawyers act as judge and jury before a defendant is even charged.  Economic perhaps, effective, no. This has a knock-on effect to the police who then pre-empt that decision making.  No point in sending a file to the CPS just to see it knocked back.  The CPS must of course also have a mind to the backlog in the courts, no point sending a case there if it won’t be heard for months, if not years on end. And then the courts.  The consistent closure of courts, both magistrates and crown over the years beggars belief. There is no local justice now, if you are defendant, witness or victim, you will be travelling miles to get to the allotted court. And if you do make it, the chance of your case being heard on that day is a lottery. As for legal aid, a pipe dream. Defendants in court trying to defend themselves and having to be assisted by the court clerk because quite frankly, they do not have a clue.  But then who would?  All of this presupposes the case gets to court in a timely fashion.  You try remembering what happened 3 years ago when cross examined by a solicitor or barrister.

And prisons, well, overcrowded, understaffed and failing to provide anything but the basics, if that.  Many a report suggests a crumbling prison estate and inhumane conditions within prisons.  There has to be something fundamentally wrong with a system that allows prisoners to walk out the gates and then sees vast sums of money and resource poured into trying to find them. Efficient, or effective, not really.  As for rehabilitation, don’t even bother thinking about it.

And what of you and I, the public? What faith do you have in the criminal justice system? Is it little wonder that victims will not report crimes, and if they do, they quickly lose interest in supporting a prosecution. If the police rely on the public to help them investigate cases, what hope have they got if the public have no faith in them or the rest of the system?

The problem with successive governments is that they have been too keen to cut costs without understanding or caring about the impact.  And they are too quick to judge when things go wrong, pointing the finger anywhere but at themselves.  They fail to see the system as a whole; they just seem to fail to see.

Justice costs money.  Cutting cases that can go to trial by jury simply displays a lack of interest in justice or incompetence in governing or perhaps both.  A government that fails to deliver justice for its citizens is failing in its fundamental duty as a government. The problem is, it’s not only this government that has failed us; the failures go a long way back and any attempt to fix the issues requires a fundamental shift in policy and a significant injection of public money that is just not available.  Well, that’s what they will have us believe anyway.