Can a - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Can a 60 Old French Re-Entry Court Remain Therapeutic in an Era of Managerialism and Prison Overcrowding?

Martine Herzog-Evans

University

of

RheimsSlide2

Preliminary: Who works?In France, a Judge (the

juge

de

l’application

des

peines

: J.A.P.) is responsible for:

- releasing inmates (also furlough and remission);

- transforming custody sentences of up to 2 years into various community sentences or measures;

- dealing with or sanctioning breach;

- modifying (adapting) offenders’ in the community obligations;

And also may:

- notify obligations;

- keep an eye on the supervision (duty of PO to report to him). Slide3

The researchIn a context where (in particular in the 2002-2012

decade)

- sentences’ implementation has become a communication device for politicians;

- has become more punitive.

In 2010, a research was launched by MHE and a team of students primarily to assess what was JA.P.’s professional culture (in particular re desistance.

The research also examined several other questions, including procedural issues: was it still possible to abide by due process rules in the above mentioned context? Slide4

The researchMethodology (covering all French regions, including overseas): 3 parts

-

What JAP SAY

: 75 J.A.P

. interviewed

(more than 20% of all J.A.P.);

-

WHAT JAP DO:

Attending all sorts of hearing dealing with a total of 530 offenders;

- Analysing

their written rulings : N1300

WHAT THEIR PARTNERS SAY ABOUT THEM:

- interviewing other practitioners:

38 PO;

5 trainee PO;

16 chiefs PO (8 middle managers and 8 chiefs of service);

5 prison chiefs;

13prosecutors;

32 attorneys.

6 paralegals. Slide5

J.A.P. are good judges1) They want to become J.A.P.

(open question):

-

55.3%

‘for the close relationship we have with

justiciables

’ ;

-

48%

‘the need to do something useful, help people resocialise’;

-

24.3

%: working in partnership;

-

21.3

%: ‘sentences’ implementation law is fascinating’ and complex;

-

17.3

%: want to know what happens after the sentence is passed.

9,33% of judges and 69,8

% of

all their rulings

refer to ‘the meaning of’ the measure or its lack thereof. Slide6

J.A.P. are good judgesWith variations

of course:

e.g. former prosecutors or former prison governors or investigation judges : a little more punitive// former educators, probation officers, family judges, youth judges: less punitive

A lot had been or wanted to be: family judge,

juge

d’instance

or youth judge, positions that equally allow for constant interaction with ‘

justiciables

’ (judges have to change job on a regular basis)

I devoted a lot of energy to finding /interviewing ‘bad J.A.P.’: only found 2…

Only 2/75 wanted to quitSlide7

J.A.P. are transformed by their positionThere is

a rookie section

to the research. I interviewed 9 rookie JAP (only several months as J.A.P.).

It is clear that there is a J.A.P. bug or zombie effect: they are partly infected with the J.A.P. (human, turned towards the future and reinsertion, hands on….) bug, but usually not fully yet.

Fascinating:

the ENM

(school for judge) is praised by the judges trained in the last 4 years since it radically changed its training methods and is now teaching both ‘

savoir faire

’ and ‘

savoir

être

’ (knowing how do to and knowing how to be)

Anti-terrorism J.A.P.:

totally acculturated after several years of practiceSlide8

But… a managerial and punitive contextGeneral penal system

- punitive context: dealing with all offences and harsher sentences = too many cases and overcrowding

M

anagerial pressure

from tribunal hierarchy: J.A.P. must process a maximum of cases

Bifurcation (

Pratt,

2002

)

:

- serious offences/offenders: harsher treatment (laws make it more difficult to release them) (

JAP deemed too lenient

)

- less serious/not serious offenders: community sentences or released in a standardised non judicial manner (

JAP deemed not fast enough to process these offenders

)Slide9

Procedure I: holding hearings Tyler (2012:21): four components to procedural justice in courts:

1)

‘

people want to have a forum in which they can tell their

story’

.

In legal terms

(also HER law) = access to a judge/court

2)

‘

people react to evidence that the authorities with whom they are dealing are neutral

’.

In legal terms

= principles

of impartiality and

independence (includes appearance of…).

3)

‘

people are sensitive to whether they are treated with dignity and politeness, and to whether their rights as citizens are

respected.

In Legal terms

=

fair trial. Also relates to judges’ attitude.

4)

‘

people focus on cues that communicate information about the intentions and character of the legal authority

with whom they are dealing’: is the court benevolent and caring, sincerely trying to do what is best,

and so on (redundant with 3)=

savoir

être

…Slide10

Procedure I: holding hearings J.A.P. do tick the abovementioned 4 boxesHowever:

- the law sometimes forbids them to hold hearings

(furlough, remission);

- they can avoid holding hearings if the prosecutor agrees and the decision is favourable to the offender (

eg

release)

= in big jurisdictions (Paris, Lyon, Marseille) 80 to 90% of cases processed without a hearing (

but interesting exceptions by saving time on other tasks

)Slide11

Procedure II: rulings’ ‘motivation’‘motivation’ = writing down in the ruling why the decision was made. Essential in a democracy/fundamental legal principle.

In practice no time = choice between:

- seeing all offenders but not having time to write rulings properly;

- or writing badly

motivated ultra-short and standardised rulings

but seeing (nearly) all offenders. Slide12

Procedure II: rulings’ ‘motivation’For the most part: good rulings (compared with other types of judges/courts)

They often write in a ‘therapeutic jurisprudence key’ tone

J.A.P; say they first and foremost write for the offenders, secondly for the community/society; most often for both.

Clear dichotomy between:

- long sentences/serious offenders: detailed motivation, cautious, precise;

- and short sentences/community sentences: much more standardisedSlide13

They are under attackPrison overcrowding + super

powerful

prison services = tension

against

JAP

who

do not release

enough

&/or

fast

enough

.

Strong forces trying to get rid of JAP b y clipping his/her wings

And creating tensions with probation services

= the idea is to get rid of JAPSlide14

References Pratt J. (2002), Punishment

and Civilisation

,.

Penal tolerance and intolerance, London, Sage

Tyler T. (2012), ‘The virtues of self-regulation’, in A. Crawford and A. Hucklesby (eds.),

Legitimacy and compliance in criminal justice

, Routledge: 8-28Slide15

A bit of publicityTo learn

more about

this

research

and French JAP:

M. Herzog-Evans,

French reentry courts and

rehabilitation

:

Mister

Jourdain of

desistance

,

Paris, l’Harmattan,

forthcoming

(one

ed

. in French, the

other

in English)

=

I’m

busy

translating

it

….

Give

me a

little

time



M. Herzog-Evans (

ed

.),

O

ffender release and supervision: the

role

of courts and the use of

discretion

,

Nijmegen

, Wolf

Legal

Publishers

,

forthcoming

. Slide16

THANK YOU!http://www.univ-reims.fr

/

http://herzog-evans.com

martineevans@ymail.com