Making real savings

So Nick Clegg says he is going to bring in “a new approach to penal reform” which will end “mass criminalisation of young people” and Labour’s “build and fill ‘em approach to prisons”. He told the Guardian at the weekend that: “I’ll be doing this with Ken Clarke in the weeks ahead.” Good [...]

June 7, 2010  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Children and young people, Government policy, Uncategorized  2 Comments

Stupid cuts, smart cuts

The ministry of justice has announced that it will deliver ВЈ343 million cuts, although the ministry is calling it savings following the budget announcement that the deficit will be halved over four years.В  The statement says that the aim is to protect front line priorities.В  There is a huge contradiction here, as prison budgets have [...]

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

A new face at the top

Phil Wheatley, director general of the national offender management service (NOMS), has announced he is to retire later this year.В  I wish him well in his retirement.
This offers a tremendous opportunity for change in the criminal justice system.В  A new person at the top could inject some energy into a programme of reform based on [...]

January 18, 2010  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Government policy, Prisons, Public Services  2 Comments

Community justice centres

The Times has a feature on research published by the Ministry of Justice showing no significant difference in re-offending rates between community courts and conventional courts.
Reader beware.В  The research only deals with the first year of the community courts and says clearly that it takes time to bed new ideas into services and communities.В  And [...]

July 28, 2009  Tags: ,   Posted in: Government policy, Rehabilitation, Sentencing  One Comment

Prison suicides call for radical change

I have just given a talk on suicide in prisons to MPs and Peers in the all party parliamentary group on suicide prevention.В  I talked about Jeffrey Horler, a 15 year old from Great Yarmouth who came from a very poor family and who had a history of minor trouble when he set fire to [...]

July 14, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Campaigns, Inside prisons, Self-injuring  2 Comments