Read on Twitter
1/ It's becoming increasingly more and more difficult to get the simplest thing done in the criminal justice system. Phones not answered, emails ignored, delays in booking prison video links, police not telling us outcomes of cases, custody not answering the phone, solicitor not
2/ being called at point of charge so bail reps can be made, DSCC calling wrong people in the firm when they are not on duty, DSCC website only sporadically working, LAA wrong refusing bills, courts taking out everything on the defence. Remind me why we do this again?
3/ The CJS is going to hell in a handcart and speaking up about it is like screaming into the ether. Nobody is listening. How far will they let it fall before someone does something to fix it. Incredibly frustrating to watch it falling around us. I'm running out of steam. Others
4/ must also be feeling this. There is only so much you can throw at a broken system before it's time to accept defeat. I draw a line at being forced to represent somebody at trial I have not even met until the afternoon of said trial. Professionally and ethically just wrong.
5/ This is a conscious decision not to invest more resources in the technology and staff required to bring the CJS into the 21st century, and now in the health and safety of those working in it during a pandemic. You want a functioning CJS, you have to pay for it.
6/ Cracks showing in the system from police station through to Crown Court turning into giant gaping holes. Years of cuts coming to fruition, only highlighted further and sped up by the pandemic. The CJS was well on the course for collapse before we had even heard of Covid.
