15/09/2011 07:17:00
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.
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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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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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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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08/07/2010 14:23:00
The ill-drafted indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) has wrought havoc in the justice system and should be reviewed by the government as a matter of some urgency, according to a joint research report published on 8 July by the Prison Reform Trust and the Institute for Criminal Policy Research at King’s College London, with the support of the Nuffield Foundation.
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04/03/2010 14:51:00
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”.
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03/12/2008 13:49:00
In response to the Queen’s Speech, which includes provision for a bill to establish a sentencing council for England and Wales, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:
This Bill could be used to end years of sentence inflation and crisis management in prisons by putting sentencing on a sounder footing. A sentencing council or commission for England and Wales could ensure greater consistency among judges, without fettering their discretion or independence, depoliticise sentencing and restore public confidence in the justice system.
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15/10/2008 15:52:00
This report lays bare the scale of the damage done by IPP’s.
IPP’s are a text book example of the dangers of chasing headlines by acting tough, not smart. As our report last year first highlighted, the sentence was unnecessary and proved to be unworkable, overfilling prisons and leaving prison staff to try to make sense of the mess.
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22/07/2008 12:21:00
This blistering report must make ministers review their failing prisons policy before they disappear down the bottomless public spending pit of titan jails.
What this committee of MPs from all parties found was that the prisons crisis is a direct result of the government failing to follow its twin track strategy of reserving prison for serious and violent offenders and using community orders for minor offenders.
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10/07/2008 14:45:00
Whether a sentencing commission, or a beefed-up guidance council, this body must command the confidence of ministers, judges and the public. To be effective it should get greater consistency in sentencing to stop sentence inflation, it should advise on the impact on the prison population of new laws and it must engage with the public.
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07/07/2008 14:13:00
The government should reject US-style sentencing grids in favour of establishing a permanent sentencing commission capable of ending the prison capacity crisis and reversing the excessive politicisation of sentencing, according to an independent report published by the Prison Reform Trust.
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01/04/2008 12:26:00
In his annual review of the courts, The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, said a "stream" of legislation had contributed to courts being "seriously overstretched", and that some legislation reflects the "politicisation" of sentencing.
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01/02/2008 13:45:00
Speaking today about the Court of Appeal’s judgment in the cases of David Walker and Brett James, Juliet Lyon, director, Prison Reform Trust said:
Today’s decision highlights the dangers of passing headline-grabbing laws with barely any regard to the consequences.
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