What’s it like being in prison through lockdown?

The Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody (IAP) has today published the second part of an intriguing report which gives a unique insight into the experiences of those detained in prisons during the Covid-19 crisis. Drawing on radio messages from over 200 prisoners across 55 prisons, almost half the… The Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody gives a unique insight into the experiences of those detained in prisons during the Covid-19 crisis....

The Criminal Justice Alliance

The Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA) evolved from the Penal Affairs Consortium which was set up as a loose coalition of charities concerned about government plans to introduce harsher sentencing and more punitive prison regimes in the early 1990s. The CJA was founded in 2007 and became a charity in 2011.… Work with Offenders profiles a coalition of charities fighting for a fairer justice system....

The latest youth justice trends

Last week the Youth Justice Board published its annual report and accounts for the financial year 2019/20. For readers who don’t know the YJB is the “independent non-departmental public body” responsible for overseeing the operation of the youth justice system and the provision of youth justice services. Its budget for… Work with Offenders looks at the detail of the YJB’s annual report....

Getting tough on crime again

Yesterday’s publication of the Sentencing Reform white paper has created some interesting responses from media and criminal justice stakeholders alike. On the one hand, the paper is full of “tough on crime” commitments to impose longer sentences for those committing the most serious crimes. On the other, there are a… Work with Offenders reviews the detail in the sentencing reform white paper...

Employing people convicted of sexual offences

Over half of employers would feel more confident hiring people with sexual convictions if they had access to management advice, or if they believed that the applicant wouldn’t reoffend. That’s the conclusion of a joint report by the Prison Reform Trust and Unlock (a charity which specialises in helping people… Work with Offenders on an important new report....

Public Accounts Committee highly critical of prison building programme

In a report published last Friday (11 September), the Commons Public Accounts Committee condemns the Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service’s “failure” in its attempts to improve the condition and suitability of the prison estate, echoing the “Transforming Rehabilitation” probation reforms of 2014 that were finally abandoned… Work with offenders looks into another MoJ/HMPPS failure...

Government expands offender accommodation

This week provided us with more evidence that ministers and civil servants are back from holiday and no longer focused exclusively on combatting coronavirus. Following the Ministry of Justice’s announcement on Sunday that it was controversially extending the custody time limit for how long individuals can be remanded before coming… For many years there has been growing frustration at the lack of stable and secure housing for people released from prison and those on probation...

The Centre for Justice Innovation

This is the sixth in our occasional series on key independent organisations operating within the criminal justice sector. American history 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… Work with Offenders profiles a charity dedicated to new ideas in the justice system....

Most women released from prison homeless

The Independent Monitoring Boards have published a damning new report revealing that the majority of women released from our prisons do not have a secure home to go to. The report was based on research with 80 female prisoners in 10 out of the 12 women’s prisons in England and… Work with Offenders looks at the seemingly intractable problem of homelessness for women offenders ...

Creating an evidence-based probation service

Most readers will of course be familiar with the main work of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation which consists of independently assessing the performance of the seven National Probation Service divisions and the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (until these are disbanded in June next year). The inspectorate also conducts a… Work with Offenders looks at some lesser known aspects of the work of the probation inspectorate ...