Archive for June, 2008

The benefits of social enterprise

I went to a very interesting discussion about the future of social enterprise, arranged by the Young Foundation. I am ever optimistic, and would like to see social enterprise as the foundation for all business in the future. Let’s face it, corporate social responsibility is merely public relations for most companies and unbridled capitalism will [...]

June 30, 2008   Posted in: Inside prisons  No Comments

Howard Journal of Criminal Justice

The editorial board of the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice has been meeting in our offices today.  Wiley Blackwell has been publishing our journal for nearly 20 years although the journal has been in existence since the 1920s. It is doing amazingly well and I want to have a little brag about it.
There were more [...]

June 30, 2008   Posted in: Howard League  No Comments

Responsibility for prison deaths rests with ministers

After the initial shock of the death of someone close to you, it is the little things that remind you of the loss, daily.  I have resisted taking Pauline’s phone number off my mobile, so everytime I scroll through my contacts, she is there.  A reminder of her as a person, but also her media [...]

June 27, 2008   Posted in: Self-injuring  No Comments

Lessons from high security prisons

I visited a high security prison yesterday. Several things struck me. I was, again, very impressed at the high quality of staff working inside prisons. The staff I met were caring, thoughtful, really bright and educated, and working very hard in often trying circumstances.
Then, there is security, which is quite a weird thing, often overly [...]

June 24, 2008   Posted in: Government policy  One Comment

Helping children with indeterminate sentences

Our lawyers acted on behalf of a 15 year old boy given an indeterminate sentence for a crime committed when he was 14. The Court of Appeal quashed the sentence and replaced it with an extended (determinate) sentence. The Court of Appleal said that an extended sentence should be considered, but if an indeterminate sentence [...]

June 20, 2008   Posted in: Sentencing  No Comments

Criminal damage to illiterate children

There was a very interesting Parliamentary Question tabled by David Laws MP about the literacy of children in prisons. 1,367 young people who were sent to prison in 2006/7 were judged to have the reading age of five to seven year old. A further 2,219 were judged to have the reading age of a seven [...]

June 17, 2008   Posted in: Government policy  No Comments

Has the Secretary of State for Justice lost the plot?

Has the Secretary of State for Justice lost the plot?  Simon Hughes asked him a reasonable questions about the Government’s policy on young people in the penal system and he started ranting :
“Very few young people are ever put into custody. The only reason that they are put into custody is that they have committed [...]

June 16, 2008   Posted in: Government policy  No Comments

New guidance on children’s services and housing

This new guidance on joint working between Children’s Services and Housing in local authorities seems to have been prompted by  the  Howard League’s case   R (M) v. Hammersmith & Fulham (see p. 54).
This is non-statutory guidance so weaker than we would like, of course, but it is another brick in the wall.

June 9, 2008   Posted in: Government policy  No Comments