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Racial bias and the bench

Although the judiciary wields enormous power over individuals, its operations are alarmingly under-scrutinised, and one area that has remained largely beyond examination is judicial racial bias. The research by the University of Manchester and a part-time crown court judge who is a training tutor for the Judicial College, is an… A new report from the University of Manchester and a part-time crown court judge raises urgent questions about racial attitudes and practices in the justice system....

Ombudsman highlights concerns about deaths in prison

In the report, Ms McAllister who was the the Ombudsman from October 2018 to June 2022, highlights a number of issues. The PPO investigates deaths of prisoners, young people in detention, offenders under probation supervision and individuals detained under immigration powers (detained individuals). The report highlights the case of Baby… Former Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) Sue McAllister has today published her final Annual Report, covering the year 2021-22....

Prison performance tracker highlights staff retention issues

Ahead of the government's medium-term fiscal plan, the Institute for Government (IFG)/Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has published its annual public services stocktake. The report is determinedly downbeat,  revealing that public services won’t have returned to pre-pandemic performance by the next election, which in most cases was… It is increasingly hard to retain prison staff due to better pay and conditions elsewhere, including other parts of the public sector, particularly the police, a new report has warned. ...

The experience of immigration detainees in prisons

The review finds that many immigration detainees get stuck in custody for long periods with little or no progress in their cases being made by the Home Office. An indication of the scale of the problem was the story of one detainee who told inspectors she had agreed to return… A review of the experience of immigration detainees held in prisons published today by the prison inspectorate has found that they were markedly disadvantaged compared with those held in immigration removal centres (IRCs)...

Justice Secretary signals policy reforms on transgender prisoners

The reforms on policies as to where to house inmates will also apply to transgender women who have been convicted of a sex offence. It follows Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis telling the Conservative Party conference last week :  “It cannot be right that transgender prisoners, when convicted of serious sexual… Brandon Lewis has said that transgender prisoners with male genitalia should no longer be held in women’s prisons. ...