Your Concerns

 Throughout the year, the Essex Criminal Justice Board engages with the public to:

  • hear and address local public concerns about the Criminal Justice System;
  • inform the public how we are tackling crime and anti-social behaviour in Essex;
  • dispel the myths surrounding the Criminal Justice System.

At every opportunity, we ask what concerns you. If we do not hold a public engagement event near you, you can still have your say by contacting us directly or by completing the ‘Have Your Say Questionnaire’  (via this website so it costs nothing).

The following are subjects frequently raised:

This is what you say.  To see our reply, follow the links or scroll down the page.

You say “The Criminal Justice System does not do enough for victims and witnesses.”

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You say “Agencies don’t talk to each other.”

  • That’s the whole point of the Essex Criminal Justice Board – chief officers from all seven Criminal Justice agencies and our partners regularly meet to ensure that we provide a joined up, multi-agency approach to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour in Essex.

            Some examples of how the agencies talk to each other are:

  • Offender Assessment System (OASys) is a report written by probation staff (or by prison staff once an offender is in custody) that: identifies aspects of an offender’s life causing him or her to commit crime; assesses the offender’s level of risk of harm; includes a sentence plan, identifying interventions designed to address the reasons for the offender committing crime. This report informs the court when sentencing. It sets out how probation will work with an offender if given a community sentence. It informs prison staff of the risks posed by the offender and determines the courses a prisoner must attend. On release, it informs the probation how the level of risk has changed and how the offender has progressed with his or her sentence plan. It also provides the police with intelligence.
  • Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) – fully explained by clicking 'MAPPA'.
  • The Police, Probation and Prison services share information about sexual and violent offenders via an electronic register so that each agency is informed by the same intelligence.

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You say “Prisons are too easy.”

  • We cannot give everyone a tour of a prison but we do our best to bring home to the public the reality of being locked up behind bars. Keen to stop other people following in their footsteps, a number of convicted prisoners, being educated within the prison carpentry workshop, built a mobile replica of one of their cells. It allows the public the feel for themselves what it is like to spend the majority of the day, sharing a small space with a stranger, where they eat, sleep and go to the toilet, never more than a few feet from each other.

 

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You say “Sentencing is too lenient.”
 

  • As an adult, you may sit in either a Magistrates’ Court or Crown Court to witness proceedings. When sentencing, the summing up given by the magistrates or the judge explains the reasoning behind a particular sentence. Even so, you may be left with questions which you cannot ask. Her Majesty’s Court Service regularly puts on mock sentencing exercises, using real staff and real venues. Sentencing options are explained to the public. The magistrates retire to consider their sentence, leaving the public to decide what sentence they would pass. It may surprise you that, on many occasions, the sentence handed down by the public is less severe than that handed down by the magistrates.
     

  • The National Probation Service has produced an innovative on-line programme allowing you to decide what you think is the most suitable sentence for virtual offenders.  Visit 'Judge For Yourself'. 

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