Is it a crime to be poor?

The aim of this strand of work is to share knowledge and research, and to discuss how academics, practitioners and penal reformers, can act to end this endemic abuse of the criminal justice system.

There are many examples of ways in which the criminal justice system criminalises poverty. These include:

• Hundreds of people are sentenced each year for begging and sleeping rough. Crisis is now campaigning to repeal the Vagrancy Act (which goes back to 1824)
• We still have imprisonment for council tax debt, and both APPEAL and Chris Daw QC are campaigning to end this in England, following the example of Wales
• Many are sent to prison for poverty-driven behaviour, such as the mother who shoplifted baby formula and nappies.
• Parents whose children have special educational needs who were too fearful to go to school are prosecuted under our cruel and discriminatory truancy law

Partners:

• Juste Abramovaite, University of Birmingham
• Michelle Addison, Durham University
• Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, University of Birmingham
• Tara Casey, APPEAL
• Stephen J. Crossley, Durham University
• Rona Epstein, Coventry University
• Anna Kotova, University of Birmingham
• Tara Lai Quinlan, University of Birmingham
• Martine Lignon, Prisoners' Advice Service
• Karen Nokes, UCL
• Naima Sakande, APPEAL
• Patrick Saunders, Director carolan57 Ltd

If you would like to be kept informed about the initiative, go to the official ICP website.