Archive for December, 2008

Coldingley social enterprise closed

Our social enterprise in Coldingley prison closed down on Friday.  After two years of producing high quality graphic design for a wide range of
clients, we had to give in and close it down.
We had a useful meeting with the Minister, David Hanson, last week to explain the insurmountable problems that made it impossible to run [...]

December 22, 2008   Posted in: Howard League, Inside prisons  No Comments

Juvenile justice in New York

I spoke at a meeting in Bedford yesterday alongside Nick Herbert MP, shadow justice secretary, and Elizabeth Gaynes, executive director of
the Osborne Association in New York.  It was interesting because of  the consensus amongst speakers and audience, comprised mostly of  magistrates and youth court practitioners, that custody for children should be avoided at all costs [...]

December 12, 2008  Tags:   Posted in: Government policy, International  No Comments

Riot in Aylesbury prison

I have heard there was a riot in Aylesbury prison. Two lads were stabbed. The prison was over-run and the staff lost control and had to ship in 100 prison officers in riot gear from other prisons and used tear gas. The prison was then shut down completely. Seems that relations with staff have been [...]

December 10, 2008   Posted in: Inside prisons  No Comments

IPP imbroglio

The IPP imbroglio deepens.  There are 4,863 IPP prisoners and since the sentence was introduced in 2005 only 38 have been released.  As
they are being sent into prison at nearly 2,000 a year, this does not auger well.  The most common offence attracting an IPP sentence is robbery with 27%.
Nearly a third of the IPP [...]

December 9, 2008   Posted in: Government policy  No Comments

More children getting custodial sentences

I love number crunching.  The 2007 Sentencing Statistics were published last week, all 200 pages.  And they contain some little nuggets of really bad news.  The number of children sentenced by the courts has gone up 23 % since 1997 and for girls it is even worse, at 56%.  So last year 97,000 children were [...]

December 2, 2008   Posted in: Sentencing  No Comments