Re: Automatic halving of sentence
"It's because there is no facility to extend a sentence unless another crime has been committed or new evidence received and it is returned to court."
Fair enough, but we are talking about changing the system here so why not change that bit as well. This is a democratic problem and seems to be fairly common in different countries. How we as a society hand out punishment is important for people and thus it is a part of who we vote for and why. To have any hope of an honest democratic public debate we should work to remove anything that muddies the water. And I do think that if all sentences where the minimum you had to serve (at least within ordinary circumstances excluding pardons, reforms etc) and they could all be extended to the double of that minimum, it would be a lot easier for people to understand. The end result is the same, just the wording that is different. "Three years in prison with a maximum of six years." instead of "Six years in prison with a minimum of three years." (That kind of wording might be in a different country, but the principle stands).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
