ABSTRACT
The most direct pressure on the judiciary to formulate sentencing standards and thereby lessen disparity in sentencing, came in 1884 from Sir Edmund Du Cane, chairman of the Prison Commission, and Sir William Harcourt, the Home Secretary. Du Cane had already posted his intent in an article in June 1883 in the Fortnightly Review , entitled “The Duration of Penal Sentences”, which, for the holder of an official position, was a remarkably frank critique of the judiciary. The Lord Chancellor accepted that the figures revealed unacceptable sentencing disparities. The high court judges met, agreed that exchanging views among themselves as to the sentences to be passed might help to reduce sentencing inequality, but decided it was “inexpedient to pass any formal resolutions attempting to determine the amount of the sentences, allowed by law, which ought to be imposed for any specified offences.”.
