What an absolute cluster forky ,the problem has been kicked down the road like a tin can for years, now it’s come back to bite them on the posterior.
Lack of investment in the probation service for decades, by using antiquated IT, too much time taken up to hand write reports when AI can be used.
High rates of staff leaving or not enough people wanting to do the job.
Local MP’s and Nimbies who stopped new prisons being built as they were probably only worried about the devaluation of their property on their artificially high house prices.
They can’t moan about the traffic or noise for a new prison.
It’s too late to build new prisons as they take 3 years to build.
They will be full by November 2025, most court cases are now only being heard in 2028 according to Court Serve.
Pre pandemic the crown court backlog was approximately 55,000 cases, before that the government sold court estate and property, they also reduced the times for a judge to work.
Post pandemic the backlog is 90,000, that’s expected to rise by 23,000 more by next year.
For the magistrate courts the waiting time to attend court has significantly risen with 387,000 cases not heard yet.
The pandemic and the barrister’s strike caused more delays, it was the junior barrister’s that were earning less than a barista to start their career on about £12,000 to £13,000 per year, to work on average 60 hours per week and not being paid to work at home preparing for cases early in the morning and late at night,no pay to catch up on the case files at the weekend.
For a court fee paid to them for £250, they could only make £45 profit due to travelling expenses to courts all over the place, for weeks of work to prepare a case.
High rates of prison officers quitting the job, more officers off sick for longer with stress, anxiety and depression, not enough staff in the prison estate, not enough new recruits to do the job.
Only 40 % of courts are being used daily, as in not many cases per day are being heard.
To catch up they could be open earlier in the morning, if you get a letter to attend at 10.00 am, you could be sitting around all morning, then it’s an hour for lunch to be only seen at 16.30 or they most likely will adjourn the case to be heard in a few weeks or months later, causing more delays in the system.
The courts could be open later in to the evening and open Saturday and Sunday.
