Our latest eBulletin, sent out to subscribers on Friday, 31 May. Sign-up for our free eBulletins here.
Some months ago I was speaking to a parliamentary advisor about the timing of the next General Election.
With some confidence, he said July was a good bet, more likely, in his view, than later in the year. For rest of us, mere mortals, the Prime Minister’s announcement was more of a surprise.
My immediate thought – apart from why the richest MP in parliament couldn’t rustle up an umbrella – was with the fate of the Victims and Prisoners Bill, and the reforms to the Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence it contained. Fortunately, MPs and Peers agreed to rush it through during the wash-up before parliament dissolved, securing some important, though modest, additional steps in the ongoing journey to end this awful sentence once and for all.
During the election campaign, I and colleagues at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies will be keeping an eye out for manifesto commitments on law and order, and offering some commentary and unpacking of the good, the bad, and the indifferent.
As the campaign comes to a close, we’ll be welcoming two new members of staff, due to join us in July. After a few years, following the Covid lockdown, where we have been running a rather too tight ship, it is good to be growing back again.
With just about every part of the criminal justice system mired in difficulty and dysfunction, the critical, independent scrutiny and challenge the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies offers is needed more than ever, whoever forms the next government.
Richard Garside
Director
‘You can’t be a “Black Man” in prison’
Bookings have been brisk for our forthcoming event, on 12 June, with Dr Jason Warr. You still have time to book an in-person place, if you’re quick, or you can register to attend via Zoom.
https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/event/2024-06-12/you-cant-be-black-m…
Imprisonment for Public Protection
Following the announcement of a snap General Election, there was a real risk that the Victims and Prisoners Bill, which included some important changes to the post-release supervision arrangements for released Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) prisoners, would fail to make it into law. Fortunately, MPs and Peers pulled their fingers out in the final couple of days of the existing parliament and the Bill became law earlier this week.
The prison law specialist and former legal director at the Howard League for Penal Reform, Laura Janes, has written this piece, for the Association of Prison Laywers website, on what the law changes mean for those under an IPP sentence.
You can also check out this piece in the prisoners’ newspaper, Inside Time.
The changes introduced by the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 will largely benefit those under an IPP who have been released from prison, shortening their period of post-release supervision. There is much less in the Act those still in prison. The government stubbornly refused to agree to the Justice Committee proposal of a resentencing exercise for all those serving and IPP. The Labour opposition also went back on earlier commitments to support further reforms, including to the way the Parole Board makes decision on release, leading to accusations that Labour had ‘bottled it’.
Following the election, we will continue to work with partners to press for an end to this awful sentence.
Joint enterprise
The snap election also put paid to further attempts to reform the law on joint enterprise, including reform of the law so that only those who make a significant contribution to a crime can be held liable for it. We will continue to work with partners JENGbA, and others, exploring fresh opportunities for reform when the new parliament is in place.
In the meantime, we are working with JENGbA on a three-part podcast on joint enterprise, due for release in late 2024.
Coming up
We’ll be watching developments during the General Election campaign with interest, offering commentary and analysis on law and order manifesto pledges: the good, the bad, and the meh. We’re also working on a number of reports for publication in the coming months, including:
- A review of where we are on joint enterprise reform
- An assessment of the new(ish) Serious Violence Reduction Orders
- An assessment of the (also) new(ish) Offensive Weapons Homicide Reviews
- An updated edition of our Criminal Justice Systems in the UK report, first published in 2022.
- Some working papers on the problems with the way we do, or don’t do, criminal justice reform in the UK.
You’ll hear all about these first, via this bulletin.
Joining the team
We’re delighted that two new members of staff will be joining the team in July, working on a range of policy and research activities. More information on the new staff members in the next bulletin.
The appointments follow an exhaustive, and somewhat exhausting, recruitment process. We received more than 250 applications from some really impressive and talented applicants. We are only sorry not to be able to appoint more candidates (hint hint any potential funders out there. Our director’s inbox is always open).
We appreciate the work that all the candidates put into their applications. While we were not able to offer individual feedback to those who didn’t make the interview, our director, Richard, put out this short thread on Twitter, with suggestions on how candidates can improve their chances of making it onto a shortlist.
Prison Service Journal
The May edition of Prison Service Journal, guest edited by Professor Shadd Maruna (University of Liverpool), Paula Harriott (Prison Reform Trust), and Dr Helen Nichols (University of Hull), combines articles by serving prisoners, academics, and those that straddle both worlds, on the theme of collaborative knowledge and research. The intention is what the editors describe as “equitable epistemology”: an approach to knowledge creation that incorporates academic inquiry and personal lived experiences, without hierarchical structure, to create inclusive and emancipatory ways of knowing.
The British Journal of Criminology
Last month, the legal scholar Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who holds the Lawrence D. Biele Chair of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was arrested by Israeli police and held overnight. Her release was ordered the following day by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court. Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a member of the International Advisory Board of The British Journal of Criminology (BJC).
Read the statement issued by the senior editors of the BJC.
Here’s a round-up of some of the new content in the BJC.
- Johanne Miller writes on boredom and excitement among Glasgow gang members.
- Julien Chopin, Jean-Pierre Guay, Francis Fortin, Sarah Paquette, Olivier Péloquin and Eric Chartrand examine the antecedents of intimate partner homicide in Quebec, Canada. They find that only 23 per cent of perpetrators had a prior cirminal history.
- Kaitlyn Quinn, Gillian Buck and Philippa Tomczak explore the way criminal justice voluntary sector workers talk about what they do, and how they are left feeling at the end of the day.
- Kate Brown, Sharon Grace and Scarlett Redman discuss the work of police sex worker liaison officers in one English police force.
- Frøja Storm-Mathisen writes about how young men explain away violent street culture, in Oslo, Norway.
News from our partners
Our friends at Inside Film, Dee O’Neill and Mike Wayne, have spent many years creating amazing opportunities for prisoners to script, act in, film and edit films. They recently held a private screening of their work. Find out more about the evening, and about Dee and Mike’s plans to set up a permanent film studio in prison, here.
For more than a year, the team behind the Trapped podcast series have been highlighting the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) scandal, and the fight for justice by IPP prisoners, their families, and campaigners. In the latest edition, Sam Asumadu travels to Manchester to speak to Alana Bell, sister of IPP prisoner Wayne Bell. Sam also speaks to Dr Alice Edwards, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture about her concerns over the sentence. Catch up on the latest episode, and all the previous episodes, here.
Sticking with IPP, the world premiere of ‘Britain’s forgotten prisoners’, by filmmaker Martin Reid, will be held at the Sheffield DocFest on Thursday, 13 June, and again on Friday 14 June. The film follows the stories of four IPP sentenced individuals as they try to navigate the legislative labyrinth in which they are trapped. Even release from custody turns out to be only the beginning of their problems. The film also catches up with the determined campaigners trying to persuade the government to right a terrible wrong.
- Watch the ‘Britain’s forgotten prisoners’ trailer here.
- Book tickets for ‘Britain’s forgotten prisoners’ here.
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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.
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