Campaigners call for end to pre-charge police bail
Last night the Centre's director, Richard Garside, was interviewed on BBC Newsnight on the issue of police bail.
He argued that police should not blame cuts for the problems with bail. He said;
The police remain a very well resourced public service. In the decade to 2010, police funding went up in real terms by 50%.
The full Newsnight programme can be viewed on BBC iplayer with the police bail item starting from around 19mins.
Yesterday The Guardian published a letter signed by campaigners, politicians, journalists and legal professionals calling for the government to ‘act swiftly to right this wrong’ and asks ‘all political parties to strongly consider putting a 28-day limit on pre-charge bail at the centre of their general election manifestos’. A cross party campaign ‘Justice Delayed, Justice Denied’ will be launched today and will call for police bail to be limited to 28 days, reports the BBC news website.
In August 2014 the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies submitted a response to the College of Policing consultation of the use of police bail.