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The prisoners’ entitlement to remission of sentence at the time of writing is firmly
established under the Prisons Act 2007 and the Prison Rules 2007. No distinction may be
drawn in respect of a prisoner who is serving an initial custodial sentence which forms part
of a part suspended sentence. The part suspended sentence at common law, must yield to
any statutory or regulatory provision on the calculation of remission. Traditionally, when a
court makes a part suspended sentence, it provides that a certain period of custodyshall be
served e.g. 7 years imprisonment the latter 3 years of which shall be suspended provided
the accused enter into a bond to keep the peace. Again, the issue of time is significant in
this arrangement. If sufficient care is not taken to structure the sentence as a continuous
whole, the period of remission may not be captured by either the bond or the period of
suspension. In the example given the prisoner is entitled to be released at the conclusion of
year 3 in custody provided s/he is of good behaviour. But if the latter 3 years of the
sentence are suspended what is the status of the suspended sentence for the 4 th year? Is
there a hiatus of sentence between the end of the 3 rd year and the commencement of the
5 th year? More importantly, is it possible to attach liability to the accused if the suspended
sentence is structured to apply only to the latter 3 years of the sentence? As will be
revealed in chapter 7 Section 99(2)(b) of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 specifically
anticipates this issue by providing that a bond must be entered into at the original
sentencing court to bind the accused on foot of recognisance for a period which includes
both the period of imprisonment and the period of suspension of the sentence concerned.
If the sentencing courts which utilise the part suspended sentence fail to adopt this section
and continue to applyjudiciallydeveloped procedures as previously, the possibilityremains
that the activation of the part suspended sentence may be impeded in certain
circumstances.
Another time issue emerges when the concluding year of the part suspended sentence is
examined. In the example given above the accused is released after 3 years of a 4 year
custodial sentence which is then followed by a 3 year part suspended sentence. However
the accused is still bound over by the 7 year bond. If she/he breaches that bond in the 7 th
year what possible risk does the accuse face for activation of the 3 year part suspended
sentence? In a technical sense she/he is still under the jurisdiction of the court and breach
proceedings could be brought against him/her. Notwithstanding the endurance of the
bond for the 7 year period, it is doubtful if the sentence could be activated when the
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