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

Imprisoning charities

Yesterday morning I had a fascinating meeting with the Charity Commission about whether charities should manage prisons.  I went with Kevin Curley and others from NAVCA and met with Suzi Leather and her team.  We sought the meeting because we are concerned that two charities, Turning Point and Catch 22, have joined with Serco to [...]

February 3, 2010  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Government policy, Prisons, Public Services, Rehabilitation, Uncategorized  6 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.  I wish him well in his retirement.
This offers a tremendous opportunity for change in the criminal justice system.  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

Should charities run prisons?

The debate about whether charities should run prisons is getting quite lively.  We are about to write to the Charity Commission asking them to investigate.  I have written an article for The Times today setting out our position.

August 14, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: 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.  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.  And [...]

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

Public services funding

There are several stories in the press this morning that caught my attention.
The front page of the Guardian says there is to be a decade of pain for public services.  This will hit the prisons and other parts of the criminal justice system.  And so it should because they are poor value for money .  [...]

July 24, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Government policy, Police, Prisons, Sentencing  No Comments