Abolitionism is a theory and method for dismantling prisons and criminal justice. It is above all concerned with strategising alternatives to imprisonment and, ultimately, in the long term, the eventual eradication of prisons.
When I first started working in the criminal justice voluntary sector around 15 years ago, I did so with the best intentions. From what I’d learned at university and through voluntary work,...
The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has pledged up to £15 million of extra funding for health-based alternatives to prevent the police detention of people who are mentally ill,...
The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, in collaboration with the University of Liverpool, held a workshop on alternatives to prison on 21 April 2015. Attended by around 70 campaigners, academics, researchers and activists, participants were presented with the following questions: ...
In order to find our way out of the punitive straightjacket of current penal politics, it is necessary not just to understand the context in which such policies have developed but also to propose...
Deborah Drake of the Open University and Neena Samota, writing on the Reclaim Justice Network website have called for ...
I want to thank you all for responding to our invitation – and offering to take time out of your busy schedules to contribute to the discussion today. We have an awful lot of experience and...
On 22 October the Centre held an event which aimed to stimulate debate about alternatives to policing in Britain. Professor Tim Hope of the University of Salford, and Dr Waqas Tufail of the University of Liverpool, led the discussion by introducing papers outlining which functions the police...
While considering the ’I would give up’ call from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, I was inspired by the contributions of others to pull together my thoughts on an issue which increasingly challenges researchers and providers in criminal justice – chasing the rainbow of reductions in ‘reoffending’.
We all know that justice is not a product that can be unilaterally dispensed by law enforcement or the judiciary. It is simply not within the power of the police, judiciary, the prison service,...
The Centre's director,...
Before you interject that my proposal is discriminatory, I would give up women’s imprisonment and set that up as a template for doing pretty much the same thing for men.
