Comment
Tough talk costs lives
Michael Gove is the latest politician to accept that we lock up too many people in prison.
News
Caution needed over problem-solving courts
Caution is needed over plans to extend the use of so-called 'problem-solving courts', if they are not to become problem-creating courts, our Director Richard Garside said today.
Richard was reacting to a call from more than 30 criminal justice professionals, in letter...
Comment
Five prisoners a day
The state of the prison system in England and Wales is so grim, so awful, it is easy to feel at a loss over where to start and what to do about it.
Earlier this week the Prisons and...
News
Welcome for rethink on reform prison plans
The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies' Director, Richard Garside, has welcomed hints that the new Justice Secretary, Liz Truss, might be rethinking plans for 'reform prisons'.
Speaking yesterday at the House of Commons Justice Committee, Liz Truss said that she was not yet ready to...
News
Comment on Justice and Home Secretary appointments
Commenting on the appointment of Liz Truss as Justice Secretary our Director, Richard Garside, said:
Liz Truss' predecessor, Michael Gove, seems destined to go down as the great prison reformer whose career was ended before he had time to disappoint prison reformers.
...
News
Comment on reform prisons announcement
Our Director, Richard Garside, today said that the government's plans for reform prisons were a 'tragic distraction from the big challenges of prison reform'.
Comment
Reform prisons a tragic distraction
Given the parlous state of prisons across England and Wales, a reform-minded Justice Minister like Michael Gove has ample opportunity to make his mark.
Comment
Cameron’s prison reform: privatisation and asset stripping?
Every so often a government minister makes a socially liberal speech that is hailed as a turning point in penal policy.
Comment
High prison numbers: Are sentencers to blame?
Since his appointment in May, several predictions have been made about the kind of Justice Secretary Michael Gove will be. Expanding the role for the private sector in delivering criminal justice...
News
The fantasy of prisons as places of reform
The Independent has today published a letter by our Director, Richard Garside, calling for an end to the unnecessary imprisonment of tens of thousands of fellow citizens.
Richard was responding to an...
Comment
Michael Gove and the future of electronic monitoring
The hubristically named 'New World' electronic montoring (EM) strategy, devised by the Conservative-led Coalition Government back in 2012, was a commercial, technological and penal fiasco and there is nothing to be regretted about its passing.
Comment
Close Holloway and then close all the large women's prisons
On 25 November 2015, the Justice Secretary Michael Gove announced that he was planning to close HMP Holloway. What a good...