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Our Director, Richard Garside, today called on the Ministry of Justice to scrap its 'vanity project' GPS tagging programme, and focus its energies on more pressing problems, such as the prisons and probation crises.
His call came in response to a damning National Audit Office report on the new generation electronic monitoring programme.
Among the report's findings were that the programme was:
Our director Richard Garside is quoted in a Guardian story this morning over the award of a £25m tagging contract to the controversial private security company, G4S.
Under the contract, the company will supply equipment for the new generation of GPS tags to monitor the movements of convicted offenders.
G4S is currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into allegations that it overcharged on a previous monitoring contract.
Our senior policy associate, Rebecca Roberts, has a piece in today's Independent, which questions the value of increasing police officer numbers.
In the aftermath of the UK general election and following a series of horrific terrorist attacks, there have been growing calls for better resourcing of the police. With the consensus about austerity starting to crumble Rebecca argues that we should use it as an opportunity to re-think how we organise and fund public services.
Since 2010, our UK Justice Policy Review (UKJPR) programme has been assessing criminal justice developments across the UK.
Earlier this week we published our latest UKJPR report, covering developments between the 2015 General Election and the June 2016 Brexit referendum. Yesterday our latest UKJPR annual conference – Criminal justice since Brexit – heard from 15 speakers from across the UK.
Since 2012, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies has been publishing UK Justice Policy Review (UKJPR), an annual assessment of criminal justice developments across the United Kingdom.
The latest edition of UK Justice Policy Review (UKJPR) came back from the printers earlier this week. It is due for publication next Monday and will be given, free-of-charge, to all those who attend our latest UKJPR conference – Criminal Justice since Brexit – on Wednesday, 28 June.
UKJPR 6 covers events from the May 2015 General Election to the June 2016 Brexit referendum, including:
Last month we published Trapped in the Justice Loop?, by the former Ministry of Justice policy lead on women in the criminal justice system, Liz Hogarth.
The report assessed what had gone wrong with the criminal justice system's approach to women, since the landmark Corston Review in 2007. It also set out a blueprint for how a sustainable model for women-centred services might be developed in the future.
Want to investigate state and corporate power?
This is a great opportunity for someone looking to develop their critical thinking and wanting to take their first career steps with a policy and research charity.
The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies in partnership with The Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust, is recruiting for a Research Fellow to investigate state and corporate power in criminal justice in England and Wales. Specifically:
At 14:30 on Saturday 27th May, feminist direct action group Sisters Uncut occupied Holloway Prison Visitor’s Centre to demand that the empty space be used to support local domestic violence survivors. Eight activists entered the building via an open window, as 150 rallied outside. One of the key issues they are raising is the closure of domestic violence services since the credit crunch of 2008.
Do more police officers cut crime? Are tough community sentences a realistic alternative to prison? These are some of the questions considered in the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies' latest report.
Assessing the 2017 General Election Manifestos, the first in a new series of UK Justice Policy Review Focus briefings, scrutinises some of the main manifesto pledges by the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats.