Opinion: Decision to not imprison dangerous fifth-time drink driver Mitchell Sullivan is tough to swallow
Our justice system is weighted slightly towards rehabilitation of offenders and there are sound reasons for this – but in the case of this recidivist Mermaid Waters drink driver who hit a pedestrian, we think they’ve got it wrong.
Opinion
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The decision not to imprison a fifth-time drink-driver on a disqualified licence who drove dangerously onto a footpath at Mermaid Waters, mowing down a pedestrian and injuring her, before veering across four lanes of traffic to strike an oncoming vehicle, is difficult to fathom.
The sentencing of people charged with offences is one of the most emotive and knotty issues in our society.
Research and surveys over many years have indicated the ordinary punter considers that our justice system is far too lenient with criminals.
Under Queensland’s Penalties and Sentences Act 1992, sentences are to serve five purposes: punishment, rehabilitation, deterrence, denunciation, and protection of the community.
Usually, not always, rehabilitation of the offender looms largest, and there is a reason for this: it is in society’s interest that offenders are assisted to become contributing members of society.
That way, we don’t have to pay the exorbitant cost of housing prisoners, we don’t have to deal with ruined people causing more and more harm, and we pay less for the sorts of interventions that might be needed moving ahead.
Should our justice system become more punitive, it would inevitably hit the budget bottom line in a big way, and eventually we taxpayers would have to pay for it.
For an example of a society where sentencing is weighted more towards punishment than rehabilitation, look no further than that staggering giant, the United States: we should not want that.
Balanced against the above are community expectations – we would lose, and are arguably already losing, faith in our justice system if we believed it was not doing just that: serving justice.
In the case of Mermaid Waters man Mitchell Barry Sullivan, 36, who was sentenced last week to 18 months’ imprisonment with immediate court-ordered parole, we do not believe justice was served.
A man old enough to know better, who has been hauled before the courts again and again for getting behind the wheel with a tank full of grog, who avoided taking a life through sheer dumb luck, has dodged jail purely because he offered to open his wallet and pay compensation, as the magistrate in the matter admitted.
Pity the poor souls with a similar record as Sullivan’s who, for whatever reason, do not have the means to pay compensation – don’t let the door hit you on the way out of the courthouse and onto the prison bus.
We can only hope Sullivan has finally learnt his lesson – because he has now been given a fifth chance.
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