Archive for March, 2010

Stupid cuts, smart cuts

The ministry of justice has announced that it will deliver £343 million cuts, although the ministry is calling it savings following the budget announcement that the deficit will be halved over four years.  The statement says that the aim is to protect front line priorities.  There is a huge contradiction here, as prison budgets have [...]

March 30, 2010  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Prisons, Public Services  2 Comments

Victory in the high court

Today we have won a significant victory in the high court that will have implications for any prisoner who appeals against an adjudication.  The case concerned our client, a young adult who has complex learning difficulties.  He was punished by the prison, using its own internal disciplinary processes for minor misbehaviour.  The punishment was loss [...]

March 29, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Children and young people, Prisons  No Comments

Where digital inclusion excludes

The Ministry of Justice and Department for Children, Schools and Families commissioned a former senior civil servant to conduct a review into the Youth Justice Board.  Dame Sue Street met with us and many others and published her review last week.  It is a glossy full colour 124 page document and I have been trying [...]

March 29, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Children and young people  No Comments

Inspection report on Hindley prison

The chief inspector of prisons has published an inspection report on Hindley, the biggest prison for children in Europe. Firstly, we should be ashamed that in England we have the biggest child jail in Europe. There are nearly ten times the number of children incarcerated in this one prison than in the whole of Italy. [...]

March 26, 2010  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Children and young people, Prisons  No Comments

Notes from the NOMS conference

I spent two days at the NOMS conference, attended by around 300 prison governors, heads of probation, and this year also some people from the private sector. I have made some random notes of stuff I think might be of interest from speeches and workshops.
Michael Spurr is taking over as the Chief Executive of NOMS, [...]

March 22, 2010  Tags:   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Age of criminal responsibility

Dr Maggie Atkinson, the new Children’s Commissioner, made the suggestion at the weekend that the age of criminal responsibility in England was exceptionally low and should be raised, she suggested to 12.  She is absolutely right that the rest of Europe looks at our criminal justice system for children with horror and disbelief.  In Italy [...]

March 15, 2010  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Children and young people, International  No Comments

The right to a fair trial

One of the fundamental rights upheld in Britain is the right to a fair trial. Jon Venables has not been found guilty of any new crime and should be treated as being innocent until it is proven otherwise. We don’t know yet whether he is even accused of a crime and if so, whether he [...]

March 11, 2010   Posted in: Government policy, Headline grabbing, Uncategorized  3 Comments

Less crime, safer communities, fewer people in prison

We have launched our new campaign, which you can find by visiting our website.  Please take two minutes to take action for the Howard League and help us put penal reform at the top of the political agenda during the general election and beyond.

March 5, 2010  Tags:   Posted in: Campaigns, Children and young people, Government policy, Howard League, Overcrowding, Prisons, Public Services, Rehabilitation, Sentencing, Victims  No Comments