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Our submission to the House of Commons Justice Committee inquiry into the prison population in 2022 has been published on the Committee's website.
Submitted in partnership with the analytical services organisation, Justice Episteme, our submission offers an analysis of the historical trajectory of the custodial population in England and Wales from 2003, and a projection for the period to 2022 and beyond.
Last week we held a symposium on the future of electronic monitoring of those under a criminal justice sanction in England and Wales. The symposium heard from Dr Hannah Graham, from the University of Stirling and Professor Mike Nellis, from the University of Strathclyde.
Dr Graham spoke about the Scottish experience of electronic monitoring, as well as international evidence on impact and effectiveness. Professor Nellis spoke about how electronic monitoring might be used, and about the risks of its inappropriate use.
On Friday, 5 January, Andy Bain of Community Plan for Holloway was interviewed on the early evening BBC London News, calling for genuinely affordable housing to be built on the Holloway prison site to meet the needs of young people in Islington. The interview was part of a report about the adoption of a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) for the site by Islington Council's Planning and Development Committee on 4 January.
Reflecting on the events of 2017 and looking ahead to 2018, our Director, Richard Garside, said:
2017 has been one of the busiest years for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. We have published more than 20 reports, briefings and journal editions. We have held more than 20 events. We have met with ministers and government officials and our work has been cited in parliament.
Criminal justice across the UK has got smaller, but tougher, over recent years, according to a new briefing from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. While recorded crime, prosecutions and convictions have all fallen over the past decade, a 'justice dividend' has yet to be realised in the number of people in prison, which have continued to rise.
Holloway Prison Stories and Reclaim Holloway have released a short film making the case for a women’s building to be part of any future development of the former Holloway prison site in North London.
The film features interviews with women affected by the criminal justice system and women who provided support to those in Holloway.
Our submission to the House of Commons Justice Committee inquiry into 'Transforming Rehabilitation' has now been published on the Committee's website.
Whatever the government's original intentions, we argue in the submission, the Transforming Rehabilitation programme 'is sabotaging, rather than transforming, probation work across England and Wales'.
Commenting on the National Audit Office report, Investigation into changes to Community Rehabilitation Company Contracts, out today, the Director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Richard Garside, said:
The government admitted some months ago that it had bailed out the struggling private probation companies. Thanks to the National Audit Office, we now know that the bail-out was worth a third of a billion pounds. It is unlikely to be the last bail-out the government will make before the current contracts come to an end in early 2022.
Richard Garside, Director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies today (Thursday, 14 December 2017) commented on a damning annual report by the Chief Inspector of Probation, Dame Glenys Stacey.
'None of government’s stated aspirations for Transforming Rehabilitation have been met in any meaningful way', Dame Glenys noted. She went on to question whether the current model for probation can deliver sufficiently well'.
Speaking today, Richard said:
Our latest report, out today, reveals new evidence on the extent of unnecessary criminal record checks. Based on Freedom of Information Act requests, Criminal record checks: is the volume of disclosures proportionate?, finds that nearly three quarters of the million or so convictions revealed to employers each year in criminal records checks related to offences that were more than a decade old.