Release has responded to the Ministry Of Justice’s Consultation: Diversionary and Community Cautions, Draft Code of Practice, Part 6 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
As an organisation working on the frontline of drugs policy, we have a number of concerns arising from the Draft Code of Practice in relation to gaps in its proposed application and the impact that it will have on individuals and groups that have been disproportionality and unfairly impacted by previous iterations of Out of Court Disposals and the criminal legal system as a whole. We are calling on the MoJ to plug those gaps and work to remove the unfairness, injustice and prejudice that exists in the enforcement of Out of Court Disposals.