eBulletin, 30 June 2023
Our latest eBulletin, sent out to those on our mailing list on Friday, 30 June. Sign-up for our free eBulletins here.
Last Month in Criminal Justice, our popular online panel discussion that we ran during lockdown, is back later this year.
On the first Wednesday of the month, starting this coming October, I will be chewing over the previous month’s developments in criminal justice with an expert panel of practitioners, policy experts and campaigners.
We’ll be sharing more information shortly on how you can watch and participate in Last Month in Criminal Justice. In the meantime, our back catalogue of Last Month in Criminal Justice content is available here.
As a charity with a public education mission, we have long-considered improved knowledge and understanding of crime and criminal justice to be an inherent good. The relaunch of Last Month in Criminal Justice forms part of this commitment. We are currently planning further educational materials – publications, events, webinars, podcasts and more – and will be announcing these in due course.
We will be complementing these general educational activities with in-depth pieces of work that focus on particular examples of injustice, and on areas of strong public interest. Two current examples of this in-depth work are our project on the dreadful Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence, and our recently-launched initiative on young adult safety.
Broad-based educational work and in-depth programmes form two pillars of our work, going forward. The third relates to our building.
When we bought our building in London over a decade ago, we saw the purchase in fairly conventional terms: as an office and place of work for our staff and partner organisations. Lockdown changed that, with more flexible, less office-based working patterns now the norm.
Earlier this year, we embarked on a major refurbishment project, with the aim of developing our building as a hub for collaborative activities: for us, for the other organisations based at our building, and for a growing network of individuals and organisations who use our facilities.
In our view, the best ideas for reform and change often come about through shared learning.
By combining broad-based educational work and in-depth programmes, with real-world creative collaboration in our building, we hope to open up new ways of thinking about, and acting on, the problems of criminal justice, and to chart new routes out of the monotony of repeated policy failure.
Richard Garside
Director
On our website
"I am very sorry to see her in such a distressed state": Dr Rona Epstein's latest piece details example after example of people in serious distress and mental ill health, who have breached Anti-Social Behaviour Injunctions (ASBIs) and subsequently been punished with imprisonment.
The article, based on recent research conducted by Dr Epstein and Professor Caroline Hunter, paints a grim picture of the way mentally unwell people are treated in our justice institutions.
Who does it serve to place people with schizophrenia and serious physical health problems in prison, for banging on a neighbour's door? Why does a young woman in a psychiatric hospital need to transfer to serve her prison sentence after experience of sexual assault, domestic abuse, trafficking by gangs, substance misuse and a life predominantly in care?
Dr Epstein's article is an eye-opening outline of the way imprisonment is being used to disproportionately punish the especially vulnerable who breach ASBIs, where a range of other measures could prove far more effective.
What the f**ck does that mean?: This month, Mike Guilfoyle recounts the time he tried to clear up a misunderstanding with his client, Carter (not his real name). From a misunderstanding, to a confrontation, to Carter's sad death towards the end of his probation order, Mike concludes that perhaps the misunderstanding and subsequent anger was a reasonable response to Carter's position between demanding and confusing agencies.
68 is too late: As you will note, the latest Prison Service Journal is now out and this edition gives voice to prison officers on rehabilitation, trauma, prison architecture, neurodiversity in the estate and more.
Prison officers find themselves in a morale-busting situation, not only because of the state of the estate itself, but owing to the woeful working conditions, including pay, pension and retirement age.
Originally published in a booklet produced by the Prison Officers Association, read Richard Garside's recent commentary on supporting prison officers in their fight for fairer working conditions, pension entitlement, and the right to realistic retirement age.
Publications
The latest Prison Service Journal is now on our website. May’s edition offers research undertaken by prison officers on the Unlocked Graduates Leadership Development Programme as part of their Masters studies. With essays spanning the use of force and rehabilitative culture, improving well-being through trauma-informed spaces and the role of architecture on prisoner wellbeing, it is rare and welcomed to hear the voices of prison officers.
Read and hear those voices here.
The July edition of Prison Service Journal (issue 267), discusses a range of issues concerning those living and working within prisons. It includes an important article by Joanna Binley on the experience of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among ex-prison officers. The full edition is out this coming Monday. In the meantime, you can read Joanna Binley’s article here.
News from our partners
We collaborate with a range of partner organisations, including the three great organisations who share our building: Commons, StopWatch and The Monitoring Group. Check out what they are currently up to.
Stopwatch has produced an interactive tracker mapping stop and searches across England and Wales. Free to use, this tool will allow communities to monitor their local levels of stop and search, access over ten years of data and enable comparison over time and between forces.
Listen to a new podcast presented by investigative reporter Sam Asumadu, and produced with the support of our partners at The Institute of Now, on Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP). Trapped delves into the background of the sentence and explores the stories of those who have been, and continue to be affected by it. Listen to the podcast here.
Last month, an Independent Commission of Inquiry into the violence that took place in Leicester in 2022 between members of its South Asian communities was announced. It will be chaired by Juan E Méndez, Professor of Human Rights Law at Washington College of Law and former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. The Monitoring Group’s Suresh Grover will sit as one of the panellists on the Inquiry. The Monitoring Group will also be supporting the Inquiry’s local engagement activities in Leicester. Read the Inquiry Chair’s letter here.
Would like to meet
Did you know that we own our building in Vauxhall, a short hop from Westminster, which we share with a growing network of great organisations and inspiring campaigners.
If you're looking for a new office or a place to work, collaborate or meet, we might have just the thing. Drop us a line today.
Support our work
In the last 12 months, around one pound in every ten we received in income came from individual donations. We are so appreciative of the vital support we receive from our donors and supporters.
If you like what we do, and can afford to make a donation to support our important work, we would be very grateful.
You can also spread the word about our work by forwarding on this bulletin to others and encouraging them to sign up.