http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog Frances Crook's blog. Frances Crook, Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, provides informal comments on the issues of the day Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:24:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/the-right-to-a-fair-trial 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. Related posts:Increase in number of children in ... http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/less-crime-safer-communities-fewer-people-in-prison I thought readers of this blog would be interested in some highlights (or lowlights indeed) on how children and young adults are treated in the prison system, according to the latest annual report of the Chief Inspector of Prisons: Children Although there has been a drop in overall numbers, the number of ... http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/no-discernable-progress Castington prison for children is to close - fantastic news. One down, quite a lot more to go. Castington, in Northumberland, is hundreds of miles away from the homes of many of the young people incarcerated within its bleak walls. I visited a few years ago and found lads from ... http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/childrens-prison-to-close Ending this early release scheme is a welcome step, as the scheme did nothing to increase public confidence in the justice system. Nevertheless, the scheme was originally introduced for the very good reason that our prison system was full to capacity.  Even with the scheme in place prison overcrowding remained ... http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/end-of-prisoner-early-release-scheme-announced The Prison Reform Trust has published statistics showing variation in the use of prison custody between youth courts across the country. Courts such as Bridgend, Rotherham (maybe it is to do with the food? remember that was Jamie Oliver's shock horror television programme), Derby and Wolverhampton. The custody rates are ... http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/youth-sentencing Apparently most people think that in some circumstances rape victims should accept responsibility for being attacked. This raises some interesting questions about our attitudes to victims and crime.  The law punishes a perpetrator of a fraud against an employer with additional severity because it is a breach of trust. Yet, when ... http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/rape-is-rape-wherever-and-whenever New powers for local authorities to refuse permission for a lap dancing club will be introduced in April. I think this is a welcome move for several reasons. I agree with Harriet Harman that local people should be able to decide for themselves if they want a sleazy club in ... http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/lap-dancing-clubs-and-local-powers Amnesty International is suffering some bad publicity because one of its staff has been suspended. She appears to be claiming that the organisation (don’t forget, Amnesty is not a charity) is linked too closely to a group called Cageprisoners, one of whose principal spokespeople is Moazzam Begg.  I don’t know ... http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/amnesty-and-platform-sharing The foreign secretary has lost an appeal court bid to stop the disclosure of secret information relating to the alleged torture of Binyam Mohamed. This was a clash of rival principles, state security against the protection of human rights and prevention of torture. In 2003 the UK signed up to the ... http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/we-should-not-conduct-torture-nor-should-we-be-complicit