In a typically forthright report, the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons says it is clear that implementing the 2018 Female Offender Strategy: “has been a relatively low priority for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and was so even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.” It is a long-standing… Work with offenders on a Public Accounts Committee report...
Starting from yesterday’s Bank Holiday (2 May), the Government has controversially doubled the powers of Magistrates when passing a sentence of imprisonment. Historically, Magistrates have only been empowered to issue a maximum of six months in prison for a single offence. If Magistrates felt this sentence did not reflect the… Work with offenders on a controversial new Government measure...
The new initiative will provide essential support services to leavers from two prisons in Yorkshire who are released on a Friday and who otherwise would face a lack in support across their first weekend in the community. The charity has formed partnerships for the project with BME service provider Touchstone,… St Giles’ Trust, along with their project partners, has been awarded £456,558.30 for the initiative from the Ministry of Justice through the Prison Leavers Project. ...
The Ministry of Justice has published a report on Terrorism in Prison by Jonathan Hall QC, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation and its own response to the report. Mr Hall starts by reminding us that prisons are not cut off from the rest of the world or from each… Work with offenders on the report by Jonathan Hall and the Government’s response...
The Justice Committee has called on the Government to do more to tackle the lengthy backlog facing the court system in a new report. The Committee, chaired by Sir Bob Neill, warns that while innovations in the court system are welcome it will require strategic planning and long-term resourcing… Work with offenders on this week’s Justice Committee report...
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. ...