View/Open - CORA - University College Cork

maintain progress on a treatment programme. Where compliance is indicated, invariablya
suspended sentence is utilisedas a final disposal to ensure compliance into the future.
THE CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS OF THE SUSPENDED SENTENCE
A suspended sentence is a determinate period of incarceration, whether of imprisonment
or detention, which period of incarceration the convicted person will not be called upon to
serve provided s/he keeps the peace and abides by any conditions imposed for a specified
period of time. The latter period of time, sometimes referred to as the operative period, is
usually specified as the duration period of a bond entered into by the convicted person to
keep the peace or it may be specifically set out in the order of the court when the bond is
not required. Prior to 2006 there appeared to be some confusion as to the legal device
which structuredthe periodof suspension.
Most courts require that the convicted person enter into a recognisance to keep the peace
and to abide by other specified conditions of the bond. However, some courts
particularly the District Court, prior to 2006 did not require the convicted person to enter
into anyrecognisance at all. Whether or not a bond is employed, the essential objective of
the sanction is to secure the undertaking of the convicted person to comply with either
broad ranging obligations to keep the peace and to be of good behaviour or more specific
conditions tailored to his/her cryogenic situation. In courts which deal with indictable
offences only, invariably, the practice is to require the convicted person to enter a formal
bond to keep the peace and to come up for sentencing if called upon to do so. In courts
of summary jurisdiction, frequently, a convicted person was not obliged to enter into a
formal bond at all but the operative period of the suspended sentence was specified in the
spoken order of the court andrecorded as such.
Osborough (1981:222) states that the straightforward suspended sentence is composed of
five distinct elements. First, the order is one which warrants a custodial sentence.
Secondly, there must be authority to suspend the execution of the sentence (People –v-
McIlhagga 1971 supra). 117
Thirdly, the suspension is made conditional upon the
undertaking of the accused as to his/her future conduct. While the undertaking mayvary
117 As observed in chapter five, the District Court in the Irish Free State commenced using the suspended sentence in the late 1920s, while the Magistrates
Court in Northern Irelandrefrainedfromsuch use until enabledto do so in statutoryform in 1968.
290