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Unlike the formal consent of the convicted person which is required under Section 4(1)(b)
of the Criminal Justice (Community Service) Act, 1983 before a court may impose a
community service order upon him/her, such consent is not required under the judge
made procedure before a suspended sentence may be imposed, unless the court specifies
that a formal bond to secure such suspension is required. As previously observed this is
not always the case.
Up until recently, District Court Judges when constructing suspended sentences have
tended to abandon the use of anyrequirement to enter into a bond to keep the peace or to
promise to pay sureties, thereby removing the element of formal consent in the making of
the suspended sentence in the District Court. Instead, some District Court Judges merely
recited that the accused was sentenced to X months imprisonment but the warrant shall
not issue provided the defendant keeps the peace and is not further convicted for an
offence within a specified period of time. Although the consensual element is removed, a
clear custodial sentence has been pronounced in the order and the conditions for its non-
activation are equally set out. Although Rottman and Tormey (1985:216) have preferred
to characterise this procedure as a deferment of sentence, such sentence has all the
hallmarks of a suspended sentence except for the requirement for the convicted person to
enter into a formal bond to keep the peace. An order that the warrant is not to issue
provided that the convicted person is not further convicted within a specified period,
where the custodial period has been specified in the order, is much more closely related to
the classical suspended sentence rather than the type of deferred sentence referred to in
this chapter where the ultimate penaltyis unspecified until the final disposal of the case.
Thus the use of this form of hybrid suspended sentence by some District Court judges
removes all trace of the consent element from the disposition. What remains is still a
suspended sentence recited in open court and recorded as such, but the convicted person
is not allowed the same formal degree of participation which is provided if s/he enters into
a formal bond. However, it is customary for a District Court judge when imposing a
suspended sentence to directlyaddress the convicted person and to specifyto him/her the
conditions which are required to be fulfilled if the custodial sentence is not to be activated.
The degree of participation by the convicted person in this exercise may be either non-
existent or s/he may acknowledge his/her obligations pursuant to the conditional
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