Archive for December, 2007

John Redwood is an idiot

John Redwood is an idiot. And a dangerous one.
His comments exonerating men who rape their girlfriends and partners are outrageous. But it does illuminate a real contradiction in the attitudes of many people, including the courts. If a man steals from his employer, it is treated as an abuse of trust and would attract a [...]

December 19, 2007   Posted in: Howard League  No Comments

NAPO parliamentary rally

I spoke at a Parliamentary rally organised by NAPO last week. The probation service is facing financial cuts over the next three years which will significantly affect service delivery. This at a time when there is huge investment promised in building more prison places and more prisons. The only people to gain from this policy [...]

December 17, 2007   Posted in: Government policy, Prison officers  No Comments

Child protection in Staffordshire

Some weeks ago we sent a child protection referral to Staffordshire county council following the chief inspector’s report into the forcible strip searching and videoing of a child in Werrington prison. I got reply. Apparently the council doesn’t think it has to bother to investigate properly because the threshold of harm has not been crossed. [...]

December 14, 2007   Posted in: Campaigns  2 Comments

Real work in prisons

There was a really excellent debate in the House of Lords on the issue of real work in prisons a couple of weeks ago, prompted by our social enterprise inside a prison. Read the debate and our briefing here.

December 13, 2007   Posted in: Inside prisons  No Comments

3 hours activity a day in prisons

Edward Garnier MP tabled a Parliamentary Question about purposeful activity inside prisons recently. Some of the prisons providing the least activity are holding youngsters. Deerbolt offers less than 3 hours a day to its teenage boys. Lancaster Farms, where 15 year old Liam McManus hanged himself a few days ago, manages just over 3 hours [...]

December 5, 2007   Posted in: Inside prisons  No Comments

Gun control cut crime

There was a really interesting short article in the Observer saing that research by US economists had shown that stringent controls on guns in Chicago had driven up the cost of getting hold of a weapon and the result had been a cut in violent crime. Apparently the ban on handguns over 20 years ago [...]

December 3, 2007   Posted in: Government policy  One Comment