Prisoners who refuse to show up to their sentencing hearings will not just face another two years added to their sentence, but could face a loss of privileges including visiting hours.
This includes cell confinement for up to three weeks, as the Ministry of Justice admitted the extra two years imposed following several murderers refusing to face the judge and the victims’ families.
This includes Thomas Cashman, the killer of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt Korbel, and Kyle Clifford, who murdered the wife and two daughters of BBC commentator John Hunt.
But officers warn this is a ‘waste of time’ and won’t happen in practice as inmates are subject to weekly reviews and are rewarded for good behaviour.
One former prison worker at HMP Frankland told Metro: ‘Prisons don’t want to keep people on that system called “basic privileges”, because it simply doesn’t look good. Every week, prisoners who are on it get a weekly review, and if they have behaved well, they get moved off it.’
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If the inmates are unable to move off the system due to the new rules, it also risks causing more behavioural problems.
‘If you are a prisoner, knowing you cannot be rewarded for any good behaviour, you are going to being awful,’ the former officer said.
He added: ‘If you are already in trouble, you might as well be in super trouble.’
Under the Ministry of Justice plans, Crown Court judges can impose the following penalties:
- Loss of prison privileges for 84 days
- Cell confinement for 21 days
- Loss of social visits for 27 days
- Restrictions on social visits to once every four weeks for 84 days
Prisons Minister Catherine McKinnell said: ‘Criminals should not be able to pick and choose when they face justice.
‘Refusing to turn up to sentencing is an insult to victims and their families, and offenders must face the consequences.’
The victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, Claire Waxman, added that criminals refusing to turn up to their sentencing ‘compounds trauma and robs families of accountablity’.
She added: ‘Their determined campaigning, alongside that of Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s family, helped ensure that this harm could no longer be ignored.’
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