The coalition Government has abandoned plans to axe the Youth Justice Board, justice minister Lord McNally announced on 23 November 2011.The U-turn comes after Justice Secretary Ken Clarke announced that his department would not go ahead with plans to abolish the role of chief coroner.

A copy of the briefing can be viewed by clicking this link.

Too many vulnerable women are unnecessarily sent to the UK’s prisons for non-violent offences, while local women’s centres – which have had better results in reducing offending – face an uncertain future. We are calling on our supporters to help put this right. 

Click here for more information and to email your MP.

ICM survey results offer massive vote of support for community payback and restorative justice.

The results of an ICM telephone poll of 1,000 members of the public, conducted one month after the riots in England, show overwhelming popular support for constructive ways in which offenders can make amends to victims for the harm they have caused.

The Ministry of Justice today announced a new record number of people held in prisons in England and Wales.

Read the response of Geoff Dobson, Deputy Director Prison Reform Trust, here.

Community penalties are now outperforming short prison sentences, according to statistics released today from the latest edition of the Prison Reform Trust’s Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile. If government succeeds in reforming the justice system, building on the success of community measures including diversion into health treatment where appropriate, and holding prison numbers to an unavoidable minimum, it could deliver on its promise of a “rehabilitation revolution”.

Effective community sentences that command the confidence of the courts should cut women’s offending, reduce the women’s prison population and save the public purse, according to a report launched today by the independent Women’s Justice Taskforce.

The Ford riot shows warnings over alcohol have been ignored – but we should not question open prisons' role in rehabilitation

Commenting on the disturbance at HMP Ford, Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon said: "No one wins from a prison disturbance. It endangers prisoners and staff, worries families and ends in a high cost the Prison Service can ill afford."

Commenting on the government's proposals for all offenders sentenced to four years or more to be automatically barred from registering to vote, Juliet Lyon said:

Enfranchising prisoners serving sentences of under four years is an important step in the right direction.  However, it does not appear to meet the requirements of European Court judgments which state that the vast majority of prisoners should be able to vote.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons warned the government of the challenges ahead in maintaining progress in an overpopulated prison system. Dame Anne Owers urged ministers to be bold and think differently about prison in her 

valedictory lecture 

Crispin Blunt MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Justice addresses the annual general meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Penal Affairs Group.

People aged 60 and over are now the fastest growing age group in the prison estate. Good practice exists and can be spread but work with older people in prison is not being properly supported by government and too often depends on the goodwill and enthusiasm of individual staff, according a Prison Reform Trust report.

"The Prison Reform Trust welcomes this timely report and its recognition of the important work conducted in prisons by Muslim chaplains. Too often Muslim prisoners are seen as potential extremists in the making instead of a diverse population in need of a safe environment, individual supervision and support and proper preparation for release."

60% of short-sentenced prisoners commit another crime within a year of getting out, costing the country between £7 billion and £10 billion a year, a report by the National Audit Office said today.

The Prison Reform Trust welcomes the publication of a thematic review of sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection by the Criminal Justice Joint Inspectorate, which branded the present position in regard to these disastrous IPP sentences as “unsustainable”.  

Commenting on HM Chief Inspector of Prisons' final annual report, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, described it as "a clear warning to be ignored at any government's peril".

"This report is clear that the limited progress New Hall prison is making in meeting its enormous challenges may be put at risk if the prison merges with Askham Grange open prison, near York. New Hall deals with a range of ages, from juvenile girls to adult women, and a complex set of needs. Many of the women arriving at New Hall have serious drug, mental health and self harm problems." 

“This report is a story of a poorly performing prison getting worse. Parkhurst has for a long time now been failing in its job to provide purposeful activity for prisoners so they are equipped and prepared for release back into society after serving their sentences." 

BT has reduced the prohibitively high cost of calls from prison payphones in England and Wales following a successful super-complaint issued to the regulator Ofcom last year.  

A report published by the Prison Reform Trust provides evidence that older prisoners face isolation and discrimination because the government is failing to meet their specialist health, social and resettlement needs, with some prisoners who use wheelchairs unable to join in day-to-day prison activities.  

Consumer organisations have issued a super-complaint about the cost of telephone calls from prisons, provided by BT in England and Wales and Siemens in Scotland.  

"The record high prison population for England and Wales of 81,681 has been fuelled in recent weeks by a sharp increase in the numbers of remand and short term prisoners. Despite opening a new prison this week and extra cellblocks wherever space allowed, government attempts to build its way out of this crisis have failed. In recent weeks, the prison population is growing at a rate which even building a new medium-sized prison every week would not match."

According to figures for England and Wales released by the Ministry of Justice, there were 92 "self-inflicted" deaths in 2007, including a 15 year old boy.