The Howard League for Penal Reform is the oldest penal reform charity in the UK; established in 1866 and is named after John Howard, one of the first prison reformers. Since 2016 the charity has been running a very successful programme of work to end the criminalisation of children in… Work with Offenders looks at the latest instalment of the Howard League’s campaign to end the criminalisation of children in residential care...
The main subject of conversation in the criminal justice community over the last couple of weeks has been if and when the Government would decide to release prisoners early in order to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. There are a large number of reasons why such a move… Work with Offenders looks at the detail of the Ministry of Justice's plans...
While both the prison and probation inspectorates have suspended their programmes of inspections due to the coronavirus pandemic, both organisations had already completed the fieldwork on a number of projects and are continuing to publish these reports. Yesterday, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation published an inspection report into the work… Work with Offenders examines the latest Probation Inspectorate report...
I am sure that many readers of this site have been thinking about those living and working in prisons more frequently than usual over the last few weeks. One organisation dedicated to the protection of prisoners is the UK National Preventive Mechanism (NPM). Last week the NPM published both its… Work with Offenders explains the work of the UK National Preventive Mechanism...
Her Majesty’ Inspectorate of Probation has significantly increased the range of services it offers over the last two to three years. Historically, HMI Probation has focused solely on inspection work with a combination of inspections into particular probation divisions/areas or on themes such as probation work with drug using offenders.… Work with Offenders examines the latest research and analysis bulletin from HMI Probation...
Criminal justice and public health experts alike have become increasingly concerned about the risk that coronavirus poses to people in prison. Yesterday the World Health Organisation warned that prisons around the world can expect “huge mortality rates” from Covid-19 unless they take immediate action. The WHO recommendations include all visitors,… Work with Offenders looks at the options to protect prisoners from Covid-19...
Yesterday Dame Vera Baird, the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, published a literature review on children’s experience of domestic abuse and criminality. The report, authored by Julian Molina and Jade Levell, looks at children’s experiences of domestic abuse and their criminality, including childhood criminal exploitation, serious youth violence and… Work with Offenders looks at a new literature review from the Victims’ Commissioner...
Everyone is worried about coronavirus but we now know that two main groups are particularly at risk: older people and those with underlying health problems. Our prisons hold large numbers of both groups. We know that almost 2,000 prisoners are aged 70 or older and that 36% of people in… Work with Offenders reviews current policy and thinking around risk within the prison system ...
The Chancellor of the Exchequer tends to talk about all the positive measures in his speech to the House of Commons and then the Treasury publishes the “Red Book” for the financial experts to pore over at their leisure. The bald figures are encouraging; the Ministry of Justice’s overall resource… Work with Offenders looks at the details of Rishi Sunak’s first budget...
Earlier this month, the Home Office published a fascinating 80 page research report entitled “The trends and drivers of homicide”. In this article, we share some of the main findings. Homicide trends The Home Office is keen to put our murder rate in some sort of context. The best estimate… Work with Offenders explores a new research report from the Home Office...