... directly through the executive. The concept of judicial independence in terms of English public law means that the choice of sentence in individual cases is down to the judge's prerogative and that whilst parliament is competent in setting out a range of sanctions and the levels at which they should be set, the actual sentencing decisions are down to the discretion of each judge and magistrate. Regardless of intentions attached to the creation of 'alternatives to custody, it has not only failed to reduce the size of the prison population but for much of the time it has even seemed incapable of preventing an increase in custody. This combined with other factors has given way to an alternative 'supply-side approach' (Cavadino & Dignan, 2003:121) where the demand of custodial measures is met by building more prisons which still may not be sufficient enough to satisfy the demand. The majority of non-custodial penalties ...

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