Banks on Sentence: Compact

Reviewed by Billy Little HMP Bullingdon

I’m sure that there are a million and one methods to critically review a book of this type. The fact of the matter is that Banks has laid out that all important information in a format that is simple to follow. It is, for all intent and purpose, one of those books that comes under the ‘Does what is says…’ banner.

Many of the people who use this will already be employed within the judicial system, be familiar with some of the more complex and archaic (Latin) points of reference and will have a working knowledge of its everyday functional use. However, this does not detract from the manner in which the average prisoner would wish to use it and the accurate information it contains.

In order to test just how accurate and effective this book was and could be, I conducted a little snapshot survey of a dozen or so cons. I asked each what their index offence was, taking into account any mitigating factors, a plea of guilty/not guilty, what their solicitor/barrister had told them to expect and what the magistrate/judge has given as a sentence. Now bearing in mind that all the normal scientific methodological practicability has been unceremoniously dumped and replaced by good old fashioned empirical here and now evidence; suffice to say I was really surprised to find that five got lesser sentences than that they were told to expect for a guilty plea and three were given more after being found guilty on a not guilty plea. More importantly, almost to a man, each of them received a sentence that was fairly relative to the one that they had been told to expect. So in this sense, at least, prisoners can be assured that the Sentencing council’s framework for determining sentences is being adhered to.

Robert Banks is careful to make his position clear on the ‘lip service’ that judges pay to the sentencing guidelines. He also notes within the ‘Preface’ that, after the recent trouble on city centre streets around the country, there are clear and existing problems within the judicial system over ensuring that the correct sentence is given for the offence. As opposed to the good ol’ fashioned let the tabloids and politicians decide method of doing things, well at least I think that’s what I think he was inferring!

Should you be a prisoner who is considering an appeal against your sentence, concerned that the sentence you should expect is ‘X’ (way too high) or ‘Y’ (too good to be true), then this is the book you should be using as your point of reference. Robert Banks and his regular and incontrovertible feature ‘Banks on Sentence’ has become an important aspect on the institution that is Inside Time. His ability to assist prisoners with clear and concise, up to date, information on any number of legal issues transfers onto the pages of this book. The A to Z of the criminal act at the front of the book provides the user with an easy to use reference book. With a whole range of contemporary statistics on multiple subject areas, index and core details from other cases that set precedents and outlines of how sentences are graded in terms of severity, Banks has provided prisoners with a valuable tool.