EMBARGO: 00.01 HRS MONDAY 17 MARCH 08 - Two in every thousand people now in detention (14/03/08)
Two in every thousand people are in detention in the UK according to figures published today (17/03/08) in the latest issue of Criminal Justice Matters, the magazine of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London.
The magazine, relaunched under a new publishing partnership with Routledge, includes a special focus on detention. Based on an analysis of the number of people detained in prison, child secure units, immigration removal centres or under the Mental Health Act the magazine reveals that there are 108,504 people in detention the UK. This is the equivalent of 1.8 in every thousand people resident in the country or 180 per 100,000 of the population.
The special focus on detention, edited by Dr David Scott, of the University of Central Lancashire, explores the different sites and purposes of detention, examines the backgrounds and experiences of those detained and considers the legitimacy of detention. Dr Scott notes that detention has `evolved as one of the key strategies in dealing with perceived problematic populations' and that the `the insatiable appetite to detain continues unabated today'.
The magazine includes a wide range of articles examining detention under terrorism powers, the growth in the prison population, the increasing use of immigration detention, police use of detention, deaths in custody, the impact of detention on families and inspecting custodial institutions (see full contents below).
In a new format CJM also includes a selection of articles on topical themes including approaches to gun crime, `zero tolerance' policing and corporate harm and victimisation.
Rebecca Roberts, co-editor of Criminal Justice Matters said:
`The high number of people in detention raises important moral, ethical and political questions. It also challenges us to think more critically about the role of the state and the extent to which detention is used as a form of social control.'
COPIES OF THE LATEST ISSUE OF CJM ARE AVAILABLE HERE.
Contact:
Rebecca Roberts, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies: 020 7848 1685 or 07818 414 717
Notes to editors:
- Criminal Justice Matters is the quarterly magazine of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, an independent charity based at King's College. The views expressed in the magazine do not necessarily represent those of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.
- From 2008 CJM is being published in partnership with Routledge, part of the Taylor Francis publishing group. The magazine is edited by Enver Solomon (deputy director) and Rebecca Roberts (senior policy associate) of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.
- The number in detention is presented in Table 1 on page 12 of the magazine and the calculation per head of the population is based on the latest national statistics population estimates available here.
- The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies is an independent charity based at King's College London. It was established in 1931 and aims to inform and educate about all aspects of crime and the criminal justice system from an objective standpoint. It encourages and facilitates healthy debate and understanding of the complex nature of issues concerning crime.
- The full list of articles is as follows:
EDITORIAL - A new phase
Enver Solomon and Rebecca Roberts introduce the new look cjm.
TOPICAL ISSUES
New approaches to gun violence
Peter Squires highlights the complexity of `gun crime' and considers strategies to tackle it.
Zero policy
Ben Bowling critiques the commitment to `zero tolerance' arguing that it sanctions police abuse of stop-and-search powers.
Corporate harm and victimisation: The case of Farepak
Basia Spalek outlines recent research exploring the impact of the collapse of the Farepak Christmas hamper scheme, highlighting the serious consequences of corporate crime and harmful behaviour by financial organisations.
THEMED SECTION
Thinking about detention
David Scott identifies the different sites and purposes of detention and introduces this special issue.
Detention, rights, and torture
Elizabeth Stanley describes the inhumane and widespread use of torture techniques in the `war on terrror'.
Terrorism detention without charge: How many days is enough?
Gareth Crossman questions the government's claim that longer periods of detention without charge are a necessity.
US war prisons: Intersections in punishment at home and abroad
Michelle Brown argues that domestic US detention practices are reconfiguring global imprisonment through the `war on terror'.
Taking Gods' name in vain: Carter mark 3
Andrew Coyle analyses Lord Carter's Review of Prisons and contrasts it to the Corston review on women in the criminal justice system.
The contours of the police custody process: Governance and accountability in a post-PACE world
Layla Skinns looks at the implications of the growing use of practitioners and the extended policing family in the management of police detention.
Immigration detention
Mary Bosworth examines the growing use of immigration detention and argues that the tough treatment of asylum seekers is shoring up punitive sentiment.
Mental health and detention
Marcus Roberts and Alison Cobb draw attention to the injustice that ensues from the move towards increased use of preventative detention for mental health patients and the inadequacies of mental health services in prison.
Inspecting places of detention
Anne Owers explains the importance of independent inspections of detention settings.
Deaths in detention
Deborah Coles and Helen Shaw criticise the government for a lack of will to engage with the systemic failures highlighted by tragic deaths in detention settings.
Women in a male jail
Phil Scraton and Linda Moore highlight the harms of imprisonment for women and girls in Northern Ireland.
Detention and families
Helen Codd calls for greater recognition of the impact of detention on families.
What does government want from the penal voluntary sector?
Mary Corcoran considers the problematic consequences of increased marketisation of detention services and the co-option of voluntary sector agencies in delivery.
Prison - more than detention?
John M. Moore sets detention in a historical context and questions its `reformative' goals.
Justice reinvestment: Making sense of the costs of imprisonment
Rob Allen describes a new approach in attempts to divert people from away from custody and into the community.
IN FOCUS
Where's the harm in it?
Will McMahon and Rebecca Roberts look at death, injury, and deprivation through a social harm lens.
DIGEST
Zoë Davies looks at some recent developments in criminal justice.
ENDS
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