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enter or to refrain from re-entering cases for activation of a suspended sentence in the
District Court, Circuit Criminal Court or the Central Criminal Court, but the emergence of
discretionary practices by the Prosecution especially in respect of cases which would, if re-
activated, warrant the activation of sentence suggest the application “dispositive values”
(Ashworth 1994) when dealing with certain offenders. Ashworth has characterised the
rendering of police cautions in England and Wales as an exercise in dispositive values
where discretion is exercised by police officers in disposing of cases, usually of a minor
nature and for first time offenders by way of a simple caution. The case proceeds no
further within the criminal justice systemafter the issuance of a caution. 149
As a result of the use of police cautions, the volume of offences prosecuted especially in
the Magistrate’s Courts in England and Wales has reduced significantly. Moreover, police
overtime and waste of resources which were previously expended in dealing with these
offences in court were greatly reduced. But the discretion to dispose of these numerous
minor offences through the process of Police cautioning is exercised at a pre-prosecution
stage of the criminal justice process. The value judgments exercised by the police officer
at that stage are at most prosecutorial where a decision is made to either caution the
offender or to proceed on a formal charge before the courts. However, when the issue
arises to proceed or not to proceed with an application to re-activate a suspended sentence,
it should be noted that the prosecution has already been initiated, the guilt of the offender
secured and the sentence conditionally concluded. The application of such dispositive
values in the post conviction context may be seen as an impediment, even an interference,
in what is strictly speaking, an exclusively judicial function to pass sentence (People
(D.P.P.) –v- Aylmer [1995] 2 ILRM).
One Circuit Court judge observed “the Guards are very fair” and are willing to turn a
“blind eye” to an offender who maybe on a suspended sentence who has further offended
(A3J1CC), but that serious infractions would certainly be brought to the notice of the
court. As observed earlier, the judges in the District Court in contrast believed that even
serious infractions went unchallenged.
149 It should be noted that such a scheme has also been introduced in the Republic of Ireland on the 1st of February, 2006 for all public order offences and
for theft and for criminal damage offences where the monetary value of the damage or article stolen does not exceed €1,000.00. The Irish adult cautioning
scheme is establishedon a non statutorybasis as an administrative scheme and is looselymodelledon the scheme in operation in England andWales.
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