Our Magistrate Visit

Alvin Shaw, a Magistrate visited Phase 3 to talk about the Justice system and what happens when you make wrong choices.  Students discussed rules and their importance as well as the consequences  of breaking the rules.  We learned Who is Who? in the Magistrate court and where the defendant (criminal) stood for the court case.

There are lots of different punishments that a magistrate can use; fines, community service, curfew with ankle bracelets and prison.  Students learned that Prison vans had 7 metal cupboard like rooms that prisoners could be in for up to 5 hours depending on which prison they were transferred to.  He showed us blue bags, these were what was used for a toilet.

Once sentenced to prison; you had no privacy, no space of your own, you were not able to wear your own clothes and were only allowed from your cell at specific times.  You could only have a visitor for a certain time as well and these had to be booked with the prison.  Each prisoner is only allocated £3.60 per day for their meals.