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Coronavirus risks turning imprisonment into a death sentence for some
In our latest eBulletin, our director Richard Garside summarises the work we are doing in response to the growing coronavirus crisis in our prisons.
With coronavirus continuing to dominate both the headlines and our collective social experience, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies has been focusing on the implications for the justice system in general, and the prison system in particular.
Over recent weeks we have
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Strangeways anniversary
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the start of the Strangeways protests.
We were due to hold a conference, After Strangeways: The Past, Present and Future of Prisons, at King's College London to commemorate the longest prison protest in British history.
Although our event has been postponed due to the public health crisis, we have...
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Call to reduce the prison population during corona crisis
Our Director, Richard Garside, is signatory of the mass call to immediately reduce the number of people in detention settings.
The letter, coordinated by Inquest and Women in Prison, and signed by over 100 signatories, asks the government to prioritise the health and wellbeing of prisoners during this public health crisis.
The call concluded with:
A timely, effectively managed and
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Responding to the coronavirus crisis
In a new comment piece, our director Richard Garside sets out some of the ways we plan to respond to the growing coronavirus crisis in prisons.
'If an institution was to be invented with the express intention of maximising the spread of coronavirus, and of concentrating it among those most likely to be vulnerable to it', Richard writes, 'that institution would probably look much like a prison.'
Richard's article covers some of...
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Conference cancellation: After Strangeways
We are sorry to announce that, due to ongoing concerns relating to coronavirus, the planned conference on 1 April, marking the 30th anniversary of the Strangeways prison protest, has been cancelled.
We are hoping to organise an equivalent event at some point. Given how unpredictable the situation currently is, we are not making any firm plans at this stage.
We will be announcing our future plans for conferences and events via our eBulletin. If you do not currently subscribe, you can...
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Before Strangeways: A look at life before the protests
Before the Strangeways protests in 1990, documentary filmmaker Rex Bloomstein created the series, Strangeways.
Broadcast in 1980, Strangeways explored daily life in the Manchester prison before the protests, showing the public what life was like for those imprisoned.
Rex Bloomstein is a speaker at our upcoming conference,...
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Our Director in The Times
Richard Garside comments on overcrowding in prisons.
Prisons will reportedly reach bursting point by the end of this year, fuelled by the demand for spaces as a result of longer sentencing according to The Times.
The prison population has reached over 80,000 at this point, with overcrowding and deteriorating prison conidtions...
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After Prison coverage
Our Research Analyst, Matt Ford, offers an overview of our new project, 'After Prison', for Russell Webster's website
'After Prison' aims to radically downsize the prison population in England and Wales based on the premise that there is always a better way to use a piece of land than as a place for a prison.
You can read the full article on Russell's site...