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professional guidance is available to the offender and further referrals to outside agencies
such as alcohol or drug treatment maybe arranged to facilitate the offender’s rehabilitation.
In contrast, under a suspended sentence a condition such as the requirement to remain
drug or alcohol free maybe unsupported bya professional intervention through the offices
of the Probation Service. The recent tendency in many western countries to combine the
suspended sentence with probation suggests a shift on the part of policy makers to
combine the deterrent elements of the suspended sentence with the rehabilitative elements
of the probation order. 94
However, the straight use by the courts of the suspended sentence in preference to the
probation order mayresult from a belief bysentencers that the deterrent element of future
custody is a stronger intervention in the offender’s propensity to re-offend rather than the
likelyefficacyof probation for the same offender. Additionally, the discretionarypractices
of the Probation Service not to re-enter cases before the court where breaches of the bond
are manifest may dissuade sentencers from embarking upon a programme of formal
rehabilitation. However, from a theoretical viewpoint, and assuming the automatic re-
entry of probation cases where breach has occurred, an offender on a probation bond is
equally open to the hazard of a custodial sentence upon breach. The essential difference
between the probation route and the suspended sentence route is the unambiguous nature
of the likely penalty where a suspended sentence has been given and is then activated,
whereas in a case where the accused is placed on probation, the court might equally but
finally dispose of the case by way of a fine, a custodial sentence or even a suspended
sentence. This latter result would place the probation order on a sentencing level below
that of the suspended sentence notwithstanding its conditionality. It is not uncommon to
see probation orders disposedof in this way.
A second available alternative penalty which is very infrequently used is the conditional
discharge under Section 1(1)(b) of the Probation of Offenders Act 1907 in the District
Court. Such conditional discharge cannot be combined with a fine as the entire
sentencing process is terminated bythe discharge. Thus, it will be seen that the suspended
sentence which is combined with a fine is a sentence which differs significantlyin character
to the conditional discharge. A suspended sentence combined with a fine, advances two
elements, an element of desert provided for in the fine, together with a deterrent element
94 In chapter 7 we shall see howSection 99 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 partiallyintroduces this combinedprocedure.
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