24/11/2011 14:39:00
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.
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14/07/2011 11:43:00
The number of children imprisoned in England and Wales has fallen from about 3000 in the first half of 2008 to around 2000 three years later. This significant fall has happened in parallel with a rise in the adult prison population, and despite any major legislative changes. The reduction in youth custody has occurred without an increase in youth crime. In Last resort? Exploring the reduction in child imprisonment 2008-11 Rob Allen analyses why this has happened.
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13/07/2011 16:26:00
The government announced today its plans to close two prisons and put the management of nine prisons out to tender in the autumn. You can read Prison Reform Trust's response to these announcements here.
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29/06/2011 00:01:00
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”.
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06/06/2011 00:01:00
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.
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12/05/2011 08:40:00
Too many children and teenagers are locked up, not for committing criminal or anti-social behaviour, but for failing to keep to the conditions of a previous court order. This is in spite of the fact that there is no evidence that tough enforcement is effective in reducing youth crime. In a new report commissioned from NCB, and launched in Parliament today, the Prison Reform Trust explores how and why so many children and teenagers are punished for missing appointments or for transgressing the terms of their anti-social behaviour order.
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30/03/2011 10:43:00
We welcome the commitment of the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, and the justice secretary, Ken Clarke, to divert people with mental health needs away from the justice system where possible and to improve treatment and support in the community (£5m scheme to divert mentally ill offenders from prison, 28 March). Many men, women and children in prison have two or more mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, many others struggle with a learning disability, and significant numbers have severe and ongoing illnesses such as schizophrenia and personality disorders. Prison healthcare is too often a catch-all for people who would be better cared for outside the criminal justice system.
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29/03/2011 12:00:00
Following a three year campaign led by the WI in partnership with the Prison Reform Trust, the health secretary Andrew Lansley and the justice secretary Ken Clarke have announced plans for setting up a national service for the diversion of the mentally ill from the justice system into treatment and care.
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28/03/2011 14:52:00
Ken Clarke's decision to award the security firm G4S the contract to run the 1,400-place Birmingham prison, announced in the House of Commons, has reignited the debate about the role of the private sector in our prisons. The UK already has the most privatised prison system in Europe. In England and Wales, nearly 10,000 prisoners (11.6% of the total prisoner population) are held in private prisons. This is a higher proportion than in the US, where the figure is around 9%. The privatisation of HMP Birmingham and the new private Featherstone 2 will take the total number of private prisons in England and Wales from 11 to 13, holding up to 14% of the total prison population.
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11/03/2011 11:03:00
On the 7 March 2011, the Prison Reform Trust in partnership with the Fabians hosted Rt Hon Sadiq Khan MP (Shadow Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice) as he delivered his first major speech on justice; outlining the future direction of Labour’s criminal justice policy review.
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