The prison system is so overcrowded that many judges think they stand a better chance outside of jail
On March 3 2023, the Court of Appeal handed down a judgement quashing a six month immediate jail sentence in favour of one suspended for 18 months. It meant Arie Ali, who threw a mug of boiling liquid at the face of a prison officer at HMP Maidstone, could walk free. Justices Edis, Bryan, and Dhir took the view Ali could find better rehabilitation outside of the overcrowded prison system.
Spend a day in any court around the country, and you will almost certainly hear a defence barrister quote this bit of case law as they argue for a suspended sentence. ‘I’m sure your honour will be aware of the Crown v Ali’ they say. This legal shorthand has become so ubiquitous, just saying ‘The Crown v Ali’, without explanation, is enough information for a time-pressed judge to understand the point and get on with the hearing.
With a record 88,000 people in prison, as of last October, and the population expected to exceed 110,000 by 2028, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, has warned that the prison population crisis ‘will mean more deprivation, squalor and the risk of further violence’. In response the government plans to build more space and legislate for suspending short sentences, but there are also talks of using police cells and shipping prisoners abroad.
With the prison system creaking, the ‘Crown v Ali’ has provided an open goal for barristers looking to keep their client out of jail. In one recent case at the Old Bailey, the judge said there was no point jailing a paedophile who had admitted 15 child sex offences because the sentence would be finished before he had time to access the prison rehabilitation programme.
Daniel Bates flashed clips of child rape at youngsters online, setup a spy-cam to record a boy getting changed, and downloaded hundreds of sickening abuse videos. He was arrested and released under investigation. He then started grooming another young boy over Snapchat and sent them a photo of his penis before he was arrested again. In the end, he was allowed to go home.
For those who might be surprised by this, and consider the punitive element an important aspect to deterring criminality, it seems the prison system is largely to blame. When Judge John Hillen made the observation about the lack of rehabilitation services in prison, he was drawing on knowledge from a long career. Asked if it was still the case, a probation officer said nothing had changed.
For now it means men who fuel the market for child rape videos, turn up at train stations to meet underage children, and threaten to leak nude photos on the internet, can be thankful the prison system is so bad, there’s no point them going there. The following men are all sex offenders who were spared jail.
