Our latest eBulletin, sent out to subscribers on Friday, 27 September. Sign-up for our free eBulletins here.
In criminal justice we are used to people and organisations taking clear positions, strongly made.
Clarity is often vital. We expect the police to treat suspects with dignity and respect. We take for granted that defendants should receive good quality legal representation and a fair trial. We take it as read that prisoners should be held in decent conditions, and not be subjected to unduly punitive or long sentences.
That in all three of these examples the justice system often falls short of our expectations is an argument for being that much more insistent and vocal about their importance, rather than accepting their unattainability.
Criminal justice policy development, and the ideas that feed it, is, though, an inexact science. Some of the best ideas come from unusual places, and can easily be dismissed in the rush to certainty.
At the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies we prize intellectual openness and are comfortable with the uncertainty that comes from not always having the answer. Intellectual curiosity, an openness to new ideas, even if they are unfinished, is part of the antidote to the current stuckness of criminal justice policy-making.
With this in mind, we have launched a new working papers series, to provide a vehicle for research and analysis of an exploratory and innovative nature. Our first working paper, by Dr Mike Lauder, looks at the problems of the Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence, through the lens of management theory.
There is more information below on Mike Lauder’s paper. If you would like to know more about the series, or you have an idea for a possible working paper, do drop us a line.
Richard Garside
Director
A fresh attempt to reform joint enterprise law
This month, we published The legal dragnet by Nisha Waller, which examines the law and prosecution practice concerning secondary liability, often referred to as ‘joint enterprise’. Following an Early Day Motion, tabled by Kim Johnson on 11 September, we believe that every MP should see this report, to encourage their support for reform.
To make this happen, we need to cover the print and distribution costs, estimated at £800. If you'd like to help, please consider making a donation. If just 80 people contribute £10 each, we can reach our goal and ensure every MP has the information they need to drive change.
The legal dragnet highlights how joint enterprise laws are vague and wide in scope, causing systemic injustice, including overcriminalisation, overpunishment, discriminatory outcomes, and convictions where there is no compelling evidence of intent and a defendant’s physical contribution is minimal.
Report author, Nisha Waller, writes:
Juries are left to make life-altering decisions with an absence of clear parameters and legal direction, heightening the risk of inconsistent and discriminatory outcomes, and wrongful conviction.
The bottom line is clear: the government must make good on their commitment to reform the laws of secondary liability as soon as is practically possible.
Further action on Imprisonment for Public Protection
This month, the latest attempt to reform IPP reached the House of Lords by way of a Private Member's Bill. Presented by Lord Woodley, the Bill, if passed, would enable a resentencing exercise for all those currently subject to an IPP sentence, whether in prison or the community.
A resentencing exercise is widely agreed to be the most effective way to solve the IPP crisis once and for all and was recommended by the Justice Select Committee in 2022. The Bill makes provisions for a resentencing exercise in relation to all IPP sentenced individuals; to establish a time-limited expert committee, including a member of the judiciary, to advise on the practical implementation of such an exercise; and for connected purposes.
The second reading of the Bill is scheduled for either 15 November or 13 December. We will provide updates when a date is confirmed.
Following the presentation of Lord Woodley's Bill, we received correspondence from prisons minister Lord Timpson, highlighting plans to implement changes to IPP, under the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024. Implementation of the measures will be phased, starting on November 1, 2024.
Read about these measures here.
In the news
In early July, the Centre welcomed two new Policy and Research Officers, Liat Tuv and Daisy Lutyens. In their first few months of work, they have worked on a range of projects, including analysing trends of young adult criminal justice data, the IPP Open Letter, and the Joint Enterprise EDM. Recently, they have also had the opportunity to attend events by some of our partners, Drugs, Alcohol, and Justice APPG meeting, and the Big Brother Watch event on Facial Recognition.
We look forward to the valuable contributions that Liat and Daisy will make while on our team.
Festival Season
While hundreds of thousands of people attending Glastonbury this summer, our Director Richard Garside has been busy taking part in his own festival season. Swapping wellies and dancing for academic discussion, Richard spoke on a panel at the ‘Is it a crime to be poor?’ event, British Science Festival. Read his speech here.
And despite the recent poor turn of weather, our festival season is not over yet! On 20 October, Richard is due to speak at the Battle of Ideas Festival, discussing whether Britain has become lawless.
Off the Press
In the first of our new Working Paper series, Dr Mike Lauder applies a management theory perspective to the dysfunctions of the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence.
His paper compares to approaches to policy-making. First the ‘Perfect World Paradigm’ (PWP), which assumes that it is possible to avoid failure by producing perfect systems. Unfortunately, the PWP is very poor at helping us to think about and manage complex systems, and is therefore highly vulnerable to the effects of unintended consequences. Many of the failures that we see with the IPP can be traced back to the use of the PWP as the predominant thinking process, he argues.
Lauder instead offers an alternative paradigm - Normal Chaos - and argues that this ought to have been the method of thinking used when planning and implementing the IPP sentence.
Commentary and analysis
Last month, we published the first in a two-part series by doctoral student and regular contributor to our website, Katelyn Owens, that explored why social research matters. In her follow-up piece, Katelyn demonstrates the importance of social research by unpacking the hotly contested example of prostitution/sex work.
She writes:
Power plays a role in the stories that are told. Social research should make spaces for voices and experiences of people that may otherwise go unheard or silenced. It should also seek to understand the spaces used by those marginalised people.
Have something to add on this topic? Drop us a line.
What’s what in The British Journal of Criminology?
For more than sixty years, The British Journal of Criminology has published some of the most significant research in the field.
Published this month:
- Fiona Measham, Mark McCormack, Henry Simmons, and Liam Wignall look at 10 years of recreational ‘poppers’ use.
And here are three, previously published, articles of topical interest:
- Ben Crewe, Susie Hulley, and Serena Wright compare the experiences between men and women serving long-term prison sentences.
- Harry Annison and Rachel Condry on families of indeterminate sentenced prisoners and political advocacy.
- Kitty Lymperopoulou examines ethnic inequalities in sentencing.
Prison Service Journal
The September edition of Prison Service Journal (PSJ) looks at modern slavery and human trafficking.
This special edition of the Prison Service Journal is guest-edited by Ann Snowden, Head of Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking at HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). Additionally, this edition features interviews with Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Eleanor Lyons and criminal barrister Caroline Haughey OBE KC.
Read all the articles and download the entire edition here.
Prize-winning articles from previous editions
Every year the Editors of the Prison Service Journal award the Bennett prize for the best article published that year. In our June 2024 e-bulletin, we listed the 2022 and 2023 winners.
Here are the winners from 2019, 2020, and 2021:
- ‘I just want to give something back’: Peer work in prison’, the 2019 winning article by Sarah Nixon, looked at the relationships that prisoners develop with other prisoners through peer work.
- ‘Glimpses across 50 years of prison life from members of British Convict Criminology’, by Dr Rod Earle and Bill Davies, won the 2020 award, for their article on their own experiences of short sentences in the 1980s and 1990s.
- ‘Bereavement Behind Bars: Prison and the Grieving Process’, the 2021 winning article by Dr Katie Hunt, that discussed prisoners who experience bereavement and the lack of services they have access to.
News from our partners
Our friends at T2A have launched a powerful new podcast sharing the stories of young adults in the criminal justice system. Their honest conversations offer a valuable insight into how we can create a better justice system for young adults.
Listen to their new series here.
Earlier this month, law firm Commons held a roundtable event marking the launch of their latest report ‘Justice+, why England and Wales need holistic defence in the criminal justice system’.The event included a keynote address by Baroness Helena Kennedy KC on the problems of the UK criminal justice system. Attending the event, our Research Director, Roger Grimshaw, was struck by the importance of early intervention, mitigation, and advocacy that comes from holistic legal work.
Previously mentioned in our July 2024 e-bulletin, the Howard League, Prison Reform Trust and Prisoners’ Advice Service have put together a helpful guide on when and how a person serving an IPP or DPP can get their licence terminated. Access the guide here.
Support our work
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.
You can also spread the word about our work by forwarding on this bulletin to others and encouraging them to sign up.
