Scottish ministers are proposing to give the public a say in what sort of punishments criminals should get.
New proposals designed to ensure greater transparency and consistency of sentencing were published yesterday.
They include the creation of a Scottish sentencing council to produce guidelines for sentences to be imposed by the courts.
The proposals, which will be the subject of a consultation, will create a framework under which judges will be expected to operate.
The council will have to publish its proposals in time to allow the public to comment before any draft sentencing guidelines are finalised.
Once they are, judges in all courts, including the court of appeal, would be under a legal duty to adhere to them.
Judges could depart from the guidelines if they felt a case merited it, but would have to explain why.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill stressed that the “complete independence” of the judiciary in making sentencing decisions was at the heart of the criminal justice system.
“We believe that there is a strong case for a system of sentencing guidelines to help deliver more consistent and transparent sentencing and a judicially led sentencing council to develop that system,” he said.
“We committed to this in our manifesto and we are determined to deliver it.
“Greater clarity and openness will help to improve public confidence in our criminal justice system so that victims’ interests are properly taken into account.”
The sentencing council would be chaired by a judge and include a sheriff, a justice of the peace, nominees from the Crown Office, police, solicitors, barristers, victims’ organisations and two non-judicial members.
The Scottish Government would not be represented but would be allowed to send an observer to meetings.
Legislation to set up the sentencing council will be included in the Criminal Justice Bill.
David McKenna, chief executive of Victim Support Scotland, said: “Fairness and clarity in sentencing is very important.
“A sentencing framework which ensures that victims’ interests are properly taken into account will undoubtedly give the public added confidence in the criminal justice system in Scotland.”
Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken said the issue was not the length of sentences handed down by the courts, but the length of time inmates serve.
“Thanks to successive SNP and Lib-Lab governments, we now live in a soft-touch Scotland whereby criminals are released after having completed a quarter of the sentence handed down to them,” he said.
“To restore public confidence that is the issue we have to address, by ending the ridiculous and discredited system of automatic early release and extended home detention curfews.”
Lib Dem justice spokesman Robert Brown criticised the government’s handling of the consultation.
“Improving sentencing guidelines is a sound idea in principle, but it’s nonsense to spin this as some kind of public forum on sentencing,” he said.