Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has today announced a new Victims and Prisoners Bill which aims to “cement victims’ voices at the heart of the justice system” and introduce stricter rules for releasing prisoners on parole. Victims measures The Bill will put the principles of the Victims’ Code on a statutory… The Bill will put the principles of the Victims’ Code on a statutory footing...
Domestic abuse can have a profound and lasting impact on children and young people who are exposed to it. As a result, it is essential that support services are available to help them cope and recover from the trauma they have experienced. In the UK, there are several organisations and… In the second of a series of articles on domestic abuse Anjum Mouj focuses on the impact that DA has on children ...
Entitled “Breaking Point”, the report demonstrates how the victims and survivors of some of the worst crimes imaginable are being made to wait years for their cases to reach court, having court dates postponed – often multiple times – and being kept in the dark about important updates. The report… The charity Rape Crisis has today published a new report on the re-traumatisation of rape and sexual abuse survivors in the Crown Court’s backlog of cases. ...
The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, has today published the first analysis of strip searches of children conducted by police under their stop and search powers across England and Wales. The data shows the strip-searching of children s is not an isolated problem, limited to London. Across England and… The data shows the strip-searching of children s is not an isolated problem, limited to London....
When a person has committed an offence which (often combined with the extent of their criminal history) puts them at risk of imprisonment, a range of factors are considered by the Judge or Magistrates deciding on their sentence. Some of these relate to aggravating or mitigating factors related to the… The issue has been in the news with a Court of Appeal judgment referring to sentencing and the impact of the current, very high prison population. ...
Domestic abuse and coercive control are serious issues in the UK, affecting people of all ages, genders, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Understanding these issues is crucial for identifying and addressing them effectively. Domestic abuse refers to any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening, violent or abusive… In the first of a series of articles for Work with Offenders Anjum Mouj reviews the legislation and characterstics around coercive control behaviour ...
The first part, published in November, focused on work pre-release and found that the model was not working as intended and recommended a fundamental review of current practice. In this follow-up inspection, inspectors tracked the same 100 prisoners whose cases were reviewed in prison during their resettlement journeys into the… The prisons and probation inspectorates have today (14 March 2023) published the second part of their joint thematic inspection into the Offender Management in Custody (OMIC) model. ...
The Ministry of Justice and Youth Justice Board have just published a set of 10 new key performance indicators (KPIs) to be used by youth offending services from the 1st of April this year. Because KPIs are used to monitor performance and senior managers are accountable for them, they tend… The data generated by the KPIs will be used both by the YJB to monitor performance of youth justice services (YJSs) and by the MoJ to identify barriers to reducing reoffending....
Today’s new edition of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s Investigator newsletter provides disturbing information about the number of self-inflicted deaths by people on remand. As regular readers will know, the remand population has increased steadily since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, largely due to disruptions in the court system.… The PPO has highlighted that court dates for trials and sentencing hearings are potential triggers for self-harm and suicide....
1,000 ‘Rapid Deployment Cells’ are set to be rolled out at 18 prison sites as the MoJ looks to accommodate the rising demand for prison places. The first 48 such cells were unveiled at HMP Norwich yesterday – having been constructed and lifted into place seven months after the signing… The units can be built and rolled out at speed with a lifespan of around 15 years. ...