Exporting criminal justice around the world

Plans for the UK to build a £25 million prison in Jamaica with the capacity to hold 1,500 people were announced by David Cameron today at the start of his visit to the Caribbean island, the BBC reports. The prison will hold Jamaican nationals convicted of breaking the law in the UK.

The news came as David Cameron rejected calls from Jamaican MPs and campaigners for the UK to pay reparations for the slave trade it ran in the Caribbean for hundreds of years. Cameron said that Jamaica should 'move on from this painful legacy'. 

Earlier this month prisons minister Andrew Selous announced that the trading arm of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), Just Solutions International, is to close down, The Guardian reports. 

Just Solutions came under criticism at the beginning of 2015 for bidding to sell 'prison expertise' to the Saudi regime, notorious for public beheadings, floggings, amputations and courts that regularly violate human rights.

The former Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, set up Just Solutions International in the last Parliament to sell NOMS' criminal justice practices overseas. 

Even though Just Solutions is to be wound up, there are no plans to withdraw from the Saudi bid. Selous said NOMS would be liable for financial penalties if it were to pull out at this stage.

Articles in the latest issue of our magazine, cjm, are based around racism, discrimination and criminal justice, and challenge the UK to confront its colonial past and the resulting deep seated racism that exists in contemporary British Society.