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specifically within the legislation. Under the common law system such discretion while
exercised widelybythe prosecution was more circumscribed for the sentencing court. By
this indirect route, the avoidance of custody may emerge in practice as a significant result
of the suspended sentence while remaining less focused as an initial rationale for the
suspended sentence within the statutory arrangement. The writer argues that the primary
rationale of the sanction is carried over from the common law jurisdiction into the
statutory arrangement, where the establishment and maintenance of a control mechanism
over the accused is the essential feature of the sanction in preference to anyovert policyto
avoidthe imposition of custodial sentences.
THE MECHANICS OF THE NEW SUSPENDED SENTENCE
Time Issues
In chapter 6, reference was made to the development of organic practices within the
criminal courts in Ireland in the construction of suspended sentences. In particular the
Circuit and Central Criminal Courts evolved the reviewable and part suspended sentence
while the District Court in large measure abandoned the requirement that the accused
enter into a recognisance by constructing the suspended sentence conditionally upon the
accused not receiving a further conviction. While it has been argued to the contrary, if the
new statutory suspended sentence is judged to be a replacement of the common law
jurisdiction, then the organic developments referred to above may not survive the
requirements of Section 99. On the other hand, certain constraints which presented in the
common law jurisdiction may be lifted by the application of the new statutory
arrangements.
The practice of imposing a suspended sentence without the requirement that the accused
enter into a recognisance clearlyoffends against the necessityfor the accused to do so now
under Section 99(1). It will be interesting to see if sentencers in the District Court persist
with this type of common lawsuspended sentence independentlyof Section 99. However,
as observed in chapter 6, the District Court judges were much more enthusiastic about the
new suspended sentence under Section 99 because it offered enhanced procedures for
revocation in particular, while some of the judges exercising indictable jurisdiction were
minded to continue the use of the “old system”. Moreover, the statutory suspended
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