News

Welcome for Ramsbotham's prison comments

Our Director, Richard Garside, today welcomed comments by the former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Lord Ramsbotham, on the crisis in the prisons system.

In remarks reported by the i, Lord Ramsbotham said that the 'avoidable crisis' in prisons had 'been made a great deal worse by the deliberate actions of ministers and their...

6 February 2017
Comment

The sickness haunting the prison system

There is a sickness haunting the prison service in England and Wales. This sickness, which systematically generates suffering and death, goes right to the very heart of the daily workings of prison regimes.

2 February 2017
News

Downsize prison to tackle suicide crisis

Our Director, Richard Garside, has called on the government to develop a long-term plan to downsize prisons across England and Wales. The government should aim to at least halve the number of people locked up over the next twenty years, he said.

His call comes as...

26 January 2017
Publication

Prison - more than detention?

In the 1920s, Alexander Paterson, the Prison Commissioner declared that people ‘come to prison as punishment not for punishment’ (Ruck, 1951:23). However, prisoners’ autobiographical accounts have repeatedly reminded us that prison is often experienced as painful, humiliating, and negative. This...
By 
John M Moore
cjm 102: And finally...
Publication

Deaths in detention

When I calmed down I asked them why they hit me in the nose and jumped on me. They said it was because I wouldn't go in my room so I said what gives them the right to hit a 14 year old child in the nose and they said it was restraint. These poignant words were written by Adam Rickwood who was found...
By 
Deborah Coles and Helen Shaw
cjm 102: And finally...
Comment

Beyond Govism

According to liberal commentators, Michael Gove's speech on penal reform at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, and his subsequent announcement that HMP Holloway was to close, will...

14 December 2015
Publication

What’s the worst that could happen? The death of Christopher Alder

We were originally given 11 minutes of video evidence of Christopher dying on a custody suite floor, with his trousers and boxer shorts down to his knees, with five police officers stood about, speaking about charging him with more severe charges to account for him being in the condition that he...
By 
Janet Alder
cjm 101: #BlackLivesMatter