Prisons are unable to address the physical and mental health needs of women and in fact make them worse. That’s the rather demoralising conclusion of the first report to come out of an inquiry undertaken by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Women in the Penal System (APPG) and published… Work with offenders on a new parliamentary report...
There are currently three Separation Centres in the Prison Estate, with a total capacity of 28 prisoners. The first was opened in June 2017, but a review published today has found that the use of them has “never fully taken off”. The review, conducted by Jonathan Hall, QC – the… The most influential and dangerous terrorists will be placed in specialist units in a bid to prevent radicalisation. ...
Something odd is happening in prisons. As readers will know, the prison population dropped considerably over the lockdown period for obvious reasons; lockdown meant less opportunity for many crimes and the courts weren’t sitting and so couldn’t sentence people to custody. There were 83,654 people in prison at the end… Work with offenders investigates the biggest drop in prison numbers for a generation....
This is the sixth in our occasional series on key independent organisations operating within the criminal justice sector. The Centre for Justice Innovation is a UK spin-off of the Center for Court Innovation, a not-for-profit in New York that has been at the vanguard of justice reform in the US… Work with offenders profiles a charity dedicated to new ideas in the justice system....
Interpreters are a vital part of the Criminal Justice System, and a defendant’s right to have an interpreter is protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. In 2000, seven-year-old Victoria Climbié, from the Cote d’Ivoire had been interviewed by police and social services prior to her death. Language mediation… Currently, minimum qualification requirements needed to be an interpreter in court differ from those needed to interpret for the police. ...
Eleven new projects will be supported by the £20 million initiative, which itself comes from the £220 million package aimed at reducing crime. The Prison Leavers Project has been split into three different approaches; cross-sector teams, Local Leadership and Integration Fund and Prison Leavers Innovation Challenge. The 11 pilot projects… The Prison Leavers Project is a cross-government project that works to improve the re-integration of prison leavers back into society. ...
The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has today published its report into the collapse in rape prosecutions over recent years. While the Committee welcomes the work being done by the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to try to reverse what it calls a “precipitous” fall in prosecutions over… Work with offenders on today’s report by the Home Affairs Committee...
There are 2,400 full-time criminal barristers, and 94.35 per cent of the 1,908 members who participated in a Criminal Bar Association (CBA) ballot voted in favour of the action last month. The action is by all criminal barristers and does not have an end date. It will see barristers refusing… Criminal barristers in England and Wales began the open-ended industrial action this week. ...
The Magistrates’ Association, assisted by the charity Transform Justice, has today published a report on magistrates’ experiences of criminal courts during the pandemic. The report makes recommendations for the future use of remote links in magistrates’ courts. The report draws on evidence gathered from 865 magistrates who sat in court… Work with offenders on a new report from the Magistrates’ Association on the use of remote technology during the pandemic ...
The Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA) and the Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) have published a three-part report, “Towards Race Equality”, that highlights the routine discrimination experienced by many minoritised women in prison. The CJA is a charitable network of 170 organisations all working towards a fairer and more effective criminal justice… Work with offenders on an important new report...