Judging the judges

Elsewhere on Umbrella Blog one of my colleagues praises the quality of the judiciary. Events over the last couple of days give one pause.

Two "vigilantes" who drowned a teenager by forcing him to swim in a claypit have been jailed for a mere five and a half years, after the judge criticised the defendants' "extraordinarily callous behaviour". Read what they did. For that they should be in prison for ten years each - which presumably means a sentence of 20 years. In this country you can bully someone to death and receive a sentence which means a couple of years in jail from Judge Peter Coulson.

Mr Justice David Steel has criticised electronic tagging, after a teenager was murdered by Rikki Johnson, a violent criminal who was wearing a tag and in breach of his "strict" night-time curfew. He has 12 previous convictions, including two for battery and one for intimidating a witness. Security monitoring companies and the probation service can't immediately round these people up. The sentence seems to have been inappropriate. It may be worth following this case, as the Judge has called for further reports on how Johnson was dealt with. The victim's mother said

It is obvious that tags do not work for violent offenders. The system does not respond quickly enough when they break their orders and something needs to change. As soon as he breached the order someone should have been there to pick him up - something should have been done.

Immediate response seems unrealistic, so she is right that tagging doesn't work for offenders like Johnson. Keeps them out of prison, though, which is less embarrassing for the government even if innocent people die on the streets to save the government's face.

A drug-dealer is on the run after leaving his wife and two accomplices facing long sentences for operating a big crack-cocaine business. He was on bail, and failed to appear at Gloucester Crown Court to hear the verdict. Are we surprised? Presumably the naive Judge was.

Lastly in today's roll of judicial dishonour we have Mr Justice Collins, who keeps undermining government efforts to protect us from terrorism. Read here about the latest beneficiary of his reckless liberalism.

In this country the judiciary is unaccountable. Do they deserve to be?