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It will also be demonstrated how the new statutory suspended sentence follows a trend in
other jurisdictions to join together different dispositions into one sanction (Criminal Justice
Act 2003, England and Wales). This may be achieved by incorporating the role of the
probation officer into the suspended sentence and in the case of the part-suspended
sentence, the Prison Governor as supervisor of compliance with the conditions attached to
a part-suspended sentence. It will be shown howthis newprocedure effectively provides
the final breach between court-based supervision and executive-based supervision of an
offender on a suspended sentence, a problem identifiedin the operation of Butler Orders.
So, the statutory suspended sentence presents a new departure in sentencing policy in
Ireland by regulating in quite a different manner the functions of the various actors in the
making, supervision and revocation of the sanction. The writer will argue that in the
absence of an expressed provision to abolish the common-law jurisdiction exercised by
courts heretofore, a dual jurisdiction to suspend a sentence of imprisonment has emerged.
The question whether all of the sentencing courts will adopt the statutory procedure
exclusively, thereby making a break with the fractured procedures operated to date under
the judiciallyderived suspendedsentence, remains to some extent unknown at present. As
noted in the preceding chapter, some judges, particularly those exercising exclusive
indictable jurisdiction evinced a desire to continue some of the practices such as not using
a bond in the making of a suspended sentence or suspending a sentence of imprisonment
simpliciter, without conditions. The organic development of the suspended sentence in
Ireland demonstrates, if nothing else, a robust approach by sentencers to fashion a
sanction to meet specific penological requirements such as the future control of the
offender, or the avoidance of the imposition of custody. Some of the judges may resist
any attempt which may be perceived as a limitation of the practices developed to date.
Some evidence of this resistance is revealed in this study, although the extent to which it
may endure over time remains unclear. Conceivably, the Court of Criminal Appeal or the
Supreme Court mayrule that the suspended sentence under Section 99 is henceforth to be
regarded as the only valid form of suspended sentence by virtue of its statutory and
consequently democratic credentials. However, at the time of writing some of the
sentencing judges remain attached to the “old system” and clarity is awaited from the
superior courts.
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