Comment
Getting out of the prisons crisis
There are at least two ways of thinking about the prisons crisis and about what it would mean to get out the crisis.
First, we can think about the prison crisis as a crisis in prisons...
News
Welcome for Justice Committee prisons report
The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies has welcomed today’s report from the House of Commons Justice Committee on the government’s prison planning approach.
The report – Prison Population 2022: planning the future – finds that the government’s current approach to planning and funding future prison accommodation is inefficient, ineffective, and unsustainable.
Speaking today, the Centre’s Director, Richard Garside, said:...
News
Conference cancellation: Prison abolition in the UK
We are saddened to announce that the conference, Prison Abolition in the UK, planned for 23 and 24 May, has been cancelled.
Unfortunately, one of our conference partners has, in recent weeks, been subjected to concerted pressure by those intent on disrupting the conference. In the circumstances, they felt they had no option but to pull out.
As an organisation, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies walks the...
Comment
Why can't a prison be more like a bank?
Whether there are too many people sent to prison can be debated, but that there are too many people in prison for the system to manage decently is generally agreed. Little by way of improvement in...
News
Major conference on prison abolition in May 2019
The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and the Harm & Evidence Research Collaborative at The Open University, in partnership with Professor Joe Sim of Liverpool John Moores University, will be holding a major conference on prison abolition in the UK in 2019.
The conference will be on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 May, at The Open University campus in Milton Keynes.
The prison system in the UK is in ongoing, systemic crisis. While politicians pay lip service to the need to reduce prisoner numbers, further growth and expansion are far more likely...
News
Treasury budget confirms new mega-prisons
October's Treasury Budget announcement confirmed the construction of two new mega prisons as part of the Prison Estates Transformation Programme, Corporate Watch reports.
The programme plans to build six new prisons altogether, whilst the two confirmed in the budget will be built on the HMP Wellinborough and HMP Glen Parva sites and will create 4,000 new prison places.
Our former Senior Policy Associate, Rebecca Roberts, has previously...
News
Our Director's evidence to the Justice Committee
Our Director, Richard Garside, gave evidence to the Justice Committee earlier today as part of the Prison Population 2022: planning for the future inquiry.
Key questions were asked about:
- factors driving up the prison population
- the role and impact of community sentencing
- the balance between accountability, effectiveness and toughness in sentencing
A clip of the proceedings can be found below....
Comment
Using solutions that work to tackle the prison crisis
Once the envy of the world, UK crime and punishment policies have lost all semblance of what is smart or humane to do about crime. As always, the bureaucracy and its chorus line want to hire more...
News
Close prisons rather than try to fix them
Our Director Richard spoke about the prisons crisis at a meeting of the Friends of Le Monde Diplomatique earlier this week.
Richard said that that 'the prisons crisis is not, fundamentally, a crisis in prisons: one that can be resolved if the right reforms, the right action, is taken. It is a crisis of prisons: of our unbending attempts to treat a complex set of social problems - violence, drug,...
Speech
The prisons crisis. Alternatives to incarceration
Thank you for the invitation to speak this evening on the prison crisis. I admire the work and values of Le Monde Diplomatique. It is good to be among those committed to supporting its ongoing, and important, work.
News
Our submission to prison population 2022 inquiry
Our submission to the House of Commons Justice Committee inquiry into the prison population in 2022 has been published on the Committee's website.
Submitted in partnership with the analytical services organisation, Justice Episteme, our submission offers an analysis of the historical trajectory of the custodial population in England and Wales from 2003, and a projection for the period to 2022 and beyond.
We estimate that, if there...
News
More mega-prisons won't fix a broken society
In an article for the OpenDemocracy website, our Senior Policy Associate, Rebecca Roberts, has criticised the government's plans to expand the prison system by 10,000 places and build new prisons, arguing that it will do little to solve the ongoing crisis in the system.
Rebecca describes...