Gage breaks mould

The Gage Report into sentencing guidelines in England and Wales has found that some causes of prison overcrowding cannot be affected in any way by guidelines and that it is impossible to predict the effect of guidelines because of inadequate data collection. It recommends, however, that the current process of introducing guidelines through the Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC) should be retained and strengthened by combining the SGC and the Sentencing Advisory Panel in one body. That body will be tasked with providing estimates of its guidelines in terms of the prison population and providing the government with alerts on significant developments. The report also recommends that the government invites the SGC to assess the impact on correctional resources of the introduction of new Bills or policy.