WHILE agreeing that fewer people should be imprisoned, this view does not seem to be held by the judiciary.
There are the cases of the Royal Marine waiting for his appeal to be heard and the two men convicted of negligence etc in the case of the horrendous lorry crash in Bath. None of these men is likely to offend or commit a crime while on bail and refusing bail has merely inflated the prison population, admittedly not by much, but it is the principle.
Imprisonment while waiting for sentence or the result of an appeal should surely only be inflicted where the convicted person is likely to be a danger to the public or to abscond and neither event seems probable in these two cases.
To paraphrase Mr Bumble, there are far too many situations where our legislators appear to be *****.
GEOFFREY RICHARDS
Ashton Lodge
Ashton Road
Hilperton
Trowbridge