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

Who are the villains and some other questions

Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, yesterday waded into an issue that up until now has found relative political consensus – the fact that England and Wales require fewer people in prison.
Kenneth Clarke’s recent statement that short sentences were ineffective was largely endorsed by the Labour Party leadership candidates at a recent Howard League [...]

August 11, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Prisons  One Comment

Deaths of prisoners

One of the dreadful things we have to do is monitor the deaths of prisoners. Each month I get a list of all the people who have died in prison, either from suicide or natural causes. Of course, there was the murder in Grendon at the weekend – the first death of any kind that [...]

August 6, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: suicide  One Comment

Policy developments

I haven’t got around to doing a blog for ages because we have been rushing around organising events. I am not going to comment on the hustings or conference on community sentences because there are detailed reports on the website, but there have been some interesting policy developments that are worthy of comment.
In the [...]

July 29, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Children and young people, Government policy, Headline grabbing, Uncategorized  No Comments

Real work in prison

We had a very interesting meeting with the new minister for prisons, Crispin Blunt, and subsequently sent him a briefing on work in prisons. Our conversation ranged broadly across penal policy and I am optimistic that Mr Blunt could turn out to be one of the most progressive and effective prisons minister I have [...]

July 16, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Government policy, Prisons, Uncategorized  2 Comments

Non porous prisons

Over the last few months, members of my team have been working with children in prisons across the country. This has been part of our exciting U R Boss project – a ground breaking youth justice project that provides a participation programme to children in custody and those recently released into the community. U R [...]

June 23, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Children and young people  No Comments

Report on Bristol prison

The chief inspector’s report published today (15 June) on Bristol prison – as with all local prisons – is really depressing. Bristol opened in 1883 and holds 605 men, despite only having places for 428. Young men, some still teenagers, are forced to share cells with older men and staff have no special training for [...]

June 15, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Prisons  No Comments

A visit to Belfast

I visited Belfast yesterday at the invitation of Niacro to speak to MLAs following the devolution of justice. 
The lively meeting was held in a committee room in Stormont, an imposing building constructed in the 1930s reminiscent of the Italian style of the time.  MLAs from four political parties attended, along with the chief inspector, prison [...]

June 2, 2010  Tags:   Posted in: Children and young people, Government policy, Inside prisons  No Comments

A few random comments before Easter

I am off to visit family in Norfolk for Easter but thought I would post a few random comments before I leave.
Driving home a couple of days ago I was indulging in my usual irritating habit of cruising radio stations when I was captivated by a woman journalist talking on Absolute radio.  Normally I flick [...]

April 1, 2010  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Government policy, Prisons, anti-social behaviour  One Comment

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