News

Is criminal justice reform obsolete?

Tuesday, 24 November 2015

On 19 November 2015, the Centre hosted an academic roundtable discussion - 'Is criminal justice reform obsolete?'. We heard from Dr Bree Carlton (Monash University, Australia) and Dr Erica Meiners (Northeastern Illinois University, USA). They explored the relationships between reform, decarceration and the longer term goals of achieving structural change and ending the use of imprisonment and criminal justice.

We then heard from a panel of discussants; Dr Deborah Drake (The Open University), Dr Sarah Lamble (Birkbeck University), Andrew Neilson (The Howard League) and Professor Joe Sim (Liverpool John Moores University).

In the presentations and the discussion that followed, participants raised questions about the paradoxes and contradictions faced by those working to reform the system in the short term and downsize criminal justice in the longer term.

An edited video of Bree and Erica's presentations can be viewed below.