Jersey’s courts consider that bringing drugs to a small Island has a more harmful impact on the community and should be punished harshly. This, according to one prominent Jersey lawyer, creates “savage” sentences.
But could this change, with the focus shifting to rehabilitation – particularly for drug mules and others lower down in the chain? And does the current regime of harsh sentences even work? Megan Davies reports.
Starting points are “too long and ought to be reviewed”
Last month, one of the Island’s most senior judges hinted that offenders could face shorter jail terms.
Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae said that the Royal Court would need to reconsider the starting points that are used to calculate sentences for importing drugs.
Handing down the sentence for a man who had been dealing a number of different drugs, he said they were “too long and ought to be reviewed by this court in the future”.
Judges use starting points with defendants’ mitigation – such as remorse or an early guilty plea – reducing the sentence, while aggravating factors mean judges have to add to the sentence.
Often, the courts say that Jersey needs a strong deterrent because the impact of bringing drugs into a small community is so devastating.
Does it work?
Advocate James Corbett came to Jersey with decades of experience as one of England and Wales’ most senior lawyers, and was called to the Jersey bar in 2023.
When he first came across the Rimmer guidelines, which are used to determine starting points in drugs cases in Jersey, Advocate Corbett said they appeared to be “simply savage”, although did admit that there is more flexibility within the guidance than first appears.
However, he argued that a strict sentencing regime hadn’t been effective in reducing drug importations in the Island.
“If you set your guidelines to solve the problem, either your guidelines or your logic has gone wrong somewhere. They simply don’t square with the social objectives at the time,” Advocate Corbett said. “There’s been a sense for the last year or two that even the court itself is getting a bit impatient with where they are.”
He added: “Clearly, severity isn’t acting as a deterrent.”
Advocate Corbett recently defended 27-year-old Jaye Eleanor Henry in the Royal Court, who had travelled to Jersey to provide moral support to a friend who had been made to bring drugs to the Island.
Because of the quantity imported, Henry was facing a starting point of 10 to 12 years.
Henry was ultimately given a community service order – but Advocate Corbett said that he did not have “the heart” to tell her about the starting point and the consequences she was potentially facing.
“The end result is death”
Earlier this year, four young adults were jailed for running a complex network of child couriers that used the addresses of children as young as 12 to import drugs.
It was a stark reminder of the contrast between a courier who is being exploited, and a kingpin who takes advantage of others.
The Metropol development had issues with people breaking into letterboxes, Advocate Corbett said, which he said turned out to be people having drugs sent to convenient addresses and breaking into the letterboxes.
Often, this involves recruiting young children who “find it exciting” and can be lured in with promises of lavish gifts.
James Cunningham, who founded James’ Ark to support children with separated parents – some where a parent is in prison – stressed that Jersey should be “careful” about the message sent out to dealers.
“In cases where they are the main dealer, I don’t think you should be looking at lower sentences,” he said.
“When you’re bringing in strong drugs, the impact it has on people, families, children, the community – that is detrimental.
“Heroin, for example, is a very dangerous drug and I don’t think people see the impact that it has on not just a family, but the person… the end result is death.
“And before death, they steal from their families, they steal from their friends, they lose access to their children, they lose access to their houses. The impact is catastrophic.”
A push for a new approach?
In recent years, there has been a push to take another look at punishments for drugs offences.
Last year, Natalia Dorota Grzegorska was the first to be sentenced under a new regime for those carrying small amounts of class A drugs.
The Rimmer guidelines, set in 2001 by the Court of Appeal, put starting points for Class A drugs at seven years’ imprisonment. For the highest quantities, the starting point is 14 years.
But the Royal Court used Grzegorska’s case to review the guidelines, with a starting point for those who import small quantities at “one to seven years”.
They heard from the Public Health Department and the Probation and After-Care Service.
Grzegorska, who under the old regime would have been given a seven-year starting point, was instead given an 18-month starting point and sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment.
There has also been discussion of specialist Family Drugs and Alcohol Courts being introduced, which would coach parents who are struggling with addiction by meeting them more regularly.
A need for more support
Efforts over the years to tackle Jersey’s drugs problem have included a series of strategies – from the Working Together Against Drugs strategy in 1996, to the Substance Use Strategy launched in 2023 and due to last until 2033.
The strategy set goals that address the Island’s wider health and improving support services for drug users as well as their families – shifting the focus away from the justice system.
They also set out to work with people at high risk, for example where there is domestic violence. A big part of the strategy targets young people, with ambitions to improve PSHE lessons and develop a “universal, selective, and indicated” prevention system.
Between 2009 and 2023, Attorney General guidance for Centeniers was introduced in which people holding personal amounts can be sent to Parish Hall Enquiries instead of being sent to court.
Options for rehabilitation exist, but Mr Cunningham said they were not enough.
The prison, he said “do great work… but they don’t have enough funding or resources that they need”.
He called for more courses and therapy services for prisoners.
Before the court sentences someone, probation officers will work with them and make a recommendation – including whether a probation order would be appropriate.
“All cases are different, but sometimes we have to weigh up what a custodial sentence would do to that person or that family and the damage that might cause,” said Mike Cutland, the head of the Probation and After-Care Service – who currently support around 350 people.
When someone is jailed, there is a “knock-on effect” on the whole family, he said. If they can avoid jail, people keep their families, jobs and relationships.
The way that people get caught up in drugs varies, including managing stress and trauma, he said.
“A probation order is an opportunity to work with the probationer to help that person rehabilitate and not offend.
“So if we’re talking about people who have used drugs, we would typically – and all cases are different – have a substance misuse worker to look at the reasons why people are using drugs and look to reduce or stop that drug use. That would be one of the ways that we would work with people.
“We would look at facts of that person’s life that might push them into drug-taking and look at healthy alternatives.”
But probation orders and community service aren’t a get-out-of-jail-free card – rather, Mr Cutland stressed that anyone who doesn’t comply is taken back in front of the court and is much more likely to face a custodial sentence.
“When people get probation orders and community service orders, that offence doesn’t go away. If they don’t abide by those orders, they’re taken back to court.”
At the start, this includes weekly reporting and working on their courses.
The offence is “a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads”, he said.
Jersey has a completion rate for community service of around 80%, and they help organisations ranging from sports clubs to environmental and heritage groups. Last year, they completed over 16,000 hours of community service.
“Community service provides people with an opportunity to give something back to the community, they learn new skills… it gives them structure as well. They have to report at 8.50am at the weekend. It limits going out on a Friday or Saturday night.
“The contribution to the community is huge,” he said.
He added that if a change in sentencing practices means more people are sent to community service, the Probation and After-Care would be able to meet the demand.
