Archive for the ‘Overcrowding’ Category

28 days

Professor Ken Pease astutely points out in a report published today for a right wing think tank that offenders are prevented from committing crimes against the general public while in prison (they can of course beat, scald, rape and attack staff and other inmates but let’s leave that aside.) But he suggests that keeping prisoners [...]

August 28, 2010  Tags:   Posted in: Government policy, Headline grabbing, Overcrowding, Prisons, Sentencing, Uncategorized, Victims  One Comment

Less crime, safer communities, fewer people in prison

We have launched our new campaign, which you can find by visiting our website.В  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

You can’t build your way out of prison overcrowding

A quarter of prisoners are held two to a cell designed for one person. More than 20,000 men and women are doubled up, including 1,186 who are three people in a cell designed for two.
This over-crowding has hardly changed in the last twenty years despite the biggest prison building programme in history. The government has [...]

July 29, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Government policy, Inside prisons, Overcrowding, Prisons  No Comments

Popular attitudes to crime

This is the first post of my shiny new blog, re-designed so that it links with other news outlets and people can post their own responses to encourage debate.
What struck me today is the discussion on the Today Programme about what we think of bank robbers.В  My daughter went to see Public Enemies last night [...]

July 9, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Overcrowding, Sentencing  2 Comments

Building prisons is not the answer

This government has built an additional 21,000 prison places since 1997 (see Parliamentary question 1 June by Dr Rudi Vis MP). It just goes to show that you cannot build your way out of a prison overcrowding crisis. The figures are daunting. This total of 21,000 extra prison places includes new prisons (run by the [...]

June 11, 2009   Posted in: Government policy, Overcrowding  No Comments