Member

We would also have wished the amendments to cover transcripts provided to defendants and their immediate families. My understanding is that defendants are entitled to receive transcripts of sentencing remarks to help them with deciding on, or preparing, an appeal against sentence. If that is right and it is limited in that way, the entitlement is far too narrow. As part of the process of rehabilitation, it is important for defendants to understand the reasoning behind the sentences that are passed on them. My experience of the criminal court, stale as it now is, is that most defendants are far too worked up during their sentencing to listen to the detail of sentencing remarks when they are made. What they want to know is whether they are going to prison and, if so, for how long, so the detail of the justification for their sentences and the steps they themselves need to take is generally lost on them, and that applies to community sentences as well as prison sentences. The same considerations apply to defendants’ families as apply to the families of victims, whom I mentioned earlier.