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nature such as conditions prohibiting contact with certain persons or the commission of
certain offences.
Generally, the judges in the survey considered the imposition of conditions as the central
feature of the suspended sentence. Previously, some of the courts imposed suspended
sentences unconditionally. This practice was criticised in the Court of Criminal Appeal
but at the time of the survey some of the judges expressed a view that an unconditional
suspended sentence could still be made. One Judge put it thus :
“That depends on the facts of the particular case. If I find reason to impose a
condition I would have no tolerance in relation to any breach of that
condition.”A9J1HC
While another judge who considered the imposition of conditions as important did allow
for an unconditional suspension when he said:
“I think theyare vital. I think a suspended sentence per se you probablyonlyuse it
in the case of somebody who has generally behaved themselves and this is a one
off crime, not likelyto re-offend according to the Guards, no previous history. But
a sentence subject to conditions which would be the more normal suspended
sentence, would be for somebody who requires supervision and that would be the
vital part.”A5J1CC
But his colleague in the Circuit Criminal Court disagreed:
“Well, I think the day of the unconditional suspended sentences rather than to be
of good behaviour is gone because it has to be tied into the drug thing. You have
to attach those conditions.” A7J2CC
Another colleague also highlighted the move towards the standard use of conditions when
she referred to the necessityto include supervision bythe Probation Service as a condition
of a suspended sentence to monitor an offender with drug addiction. While the use of
conditions was considered important, some of the judges regarded conditions of a
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