President
The Rt Hon Lord Hurd of Westwell CH, CBE

Chair
The Rt Hon Lord Woolf of Barnes

Lord Woolf was called to the Bar in 1955 and from 1973-74 was junior counsel, Inland Revenue. During this time he represented the Revenue in the majority of their leading cases before the High Court, Court of Appeal and the House of Lords. In 1974 Lord Woolf was appointed first Treasury Counsel (Common Law) a post which he held for five years. Lord Woolf was appointed to the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in 1979, as Lord Justice of Appeal in 1986 and a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 1992. Between 1996 and 2000 he held the position of Master of the Rolls and in 2000 was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales a position from which he retired in September 2005.

In 2003, Lord Woolf was appointed a non permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong, acting as the overseas judge in that Court, an appointment which he continues to hold. Lord Woolf is President of the Civil and Commercial Court for Qatar and he chairs the Prison Reform Trust.

Deputy Chair
Viscountess Runciman DBE

Dame Ruth Runciman is currently chair of the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, and is Deputy Chair of the Prison Reform Trust. From 1974-1975, Ruth was a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs where she chaired several Working Groups including those that looked at AIDS and drug misuse, and the criminal justice system.

Ruth was Chair of the Independent Working Group on Drug Consumption Rooms - an initiative of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2004-2006). This produced the publication Independent Inquiry into Drug Consumption Rooms in 2006.

She was also Chair of the Independent Inquiry into the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (1997-2000) which produced the publication Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Misuse of Drugs in 2000.

From 1994-1998 she was Chair of the Mental Health Act Commission. In her CAB career she set up a Citizens Bureau Advice Service in Wormwood Scrubs in 1989 which was the first full-time CAB in any prison in the UK.

Treasurer
Andrew Fleming-Williams

Andrew Fleming-Williams is treasurer of the Prison Reform Trust, chairman of the Friends of Wandsworth Prison and a trustee of Escaping Victimhood. He was a Justice of the Peace 1988-1993.

Independently of his involvement as treasurer of the Prison Reform Trust, Andrew Fleming-Williams has for some time been working to develop the concept of prisoner and management forums. He recently completed a project facilitating forums in seventeen establishments in the South East of England, and the report, Debating for a Change, introduces the concept and delivers the results of the completed questionnaires.

Trustee
Colin Allen

Colin Allen is a trustee of the Prison Reform Trust and the Prisoners Advice and Care Trust. Born 1942 in London. Educated at St Edmund’s College, seminary. Left before ordination. Married with 4 children and 6 grandchildren. Worked as voluntary youth leader in East End of London. Joined Prison Service as Assistant Governor, Lowdham Grange Borstal (1965), Deputy Governor Feltham Borstal (1971), Governor Huntercombe Borstal (1977), Governor Maidstone Prison (1981), Governor Holloway Prison (1985), Team Leader - Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (1989), Deputy Chief Inspector (1995). Retired 2002 – now working on a seven year human rights in prison project in Libya with International Centre for Prison Studies, King’s College, London. He has supported Arsenal Football Club since he was five.

Trustee
Rex Bloomstein

Rex Bloomstein is a documentary film-maker who has concentrated on films about human rights, crime and punishment and the Holocaust. He has exposed the realities of prison life with films such as ‘Lifers’ and ‘Strangeways, and  pioneered  11 years of human rights appeals for the BBC with Prisoners of Conscience and Human Rights, Human Wrongs.  As well as producing and directing, Auschwitz and the Allies, and his three-part history of anti-Semitism, The Longest Hatred, his most recent film on the Shoa, KZ, has been described as the ‘first post modern Holocaust documentary.’ Rex Bloomstein’s latest documentary film, An Independent Mind, features artists, writers and thinkers from around the world, who face persecution for their right to freedom of expression.

His work has led him to become a co-founder and former Chair of The Medical Foundation for the Care and Victims of Torture, as well as a longstanding trustee of the Prison Reform Trust.

Trustee
The Rt Hon Lord Bradley

Keith Bradley was first elected to the House of Commons in 1987, having served as a councillor on Manchester City Council since 1983. After the 1997 general election he became a junior minister at the Department of Social Security, and then became Deputy Chief Whip and Treasurer of the Queen's Household in 1998. He was Minister of State at the Home Office for Criminal Justice, Sentencing, and Law Reform from 2001-2, and then a backbench MP and member of the Health Select Committee. He is a member of the Privy Council.

In April 2006 it was announced that Keith Bradley would become a working life peer in the House of Lords, and he became Baron Bradley, of Withington in the County of Greater Manchester on 12 June 2006. Lord Bradley is Associate Vice-President at the University of Manchester and Chair of The Christie Hospital.

In December 2007 the Government invited Lord Bradley to lead an independent inquiry into diversion of offenders with mental health problems or learning disabilities away from prison into other more appropriate services. The report makes recommendations on the organisation of effective court liaison and diversion arrangements and the services required to support them.

Trustee
Dr Silvia Casale

Dr. Silvia Casale is the President of the CPT (European Committee for the Prevention of Torture), of which she has been the expert member in respect of the United Kingdom since 1997. A criminologist specialising in the custodial field, Dr. Casale has lived and worked in the United States, Sweden, and England. A former member of the Parole Board for England and Wales, she has worked as an independent consultant to the U.K. Prisons Inspectorate since 1985, inspecting prisons and contributing to thematic reviews. As a Northern Ireland Sentence Review Commissioner, she is responsible for determining when prisoners sentenced for terrorist offences shall be released under the Good Friday Agreement.

Trustee
Carlene Firmin MBE
Carlene was recently appointed principal policy adviser (child sexual exploitation, victimisation and abuse) at the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. Previously she was assistant director of policy and research at Barnardo’s and is a columnist for SocietyGuardian. She was the youngest black woman to be awarded an MBE at age 27 and has built a reputation for spearheading research on young people and campaigning on gang violence and issues affecting girls. Before joining Barnardo’s she was a senior policy officer at Race on the Agenda, where she led its Female Voice in Violence research programme.

In 2010 she founded the Girls Against Gangs (GAG) project, supporting women affected by gang violence to become empowered to act as local advisors on gender and youth violence. Firmin also received a London Peace Award in 2008 for bridging the gap between policymakers and young people.

Trustee
Dame Audrey Glover

Dame Audrey Glover is a human rights lawyer who was formerly a Legal Counsellor at the FCO. During that time she was the UK Agent before the  European Commission and Court of Human Rights. She was seconded by the FCO as Director of ODIHR from 1994 – 1997. She then headed the UK Delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission from 1998 – 2003. More recently Dame Audrey has headed the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Missions to Belarus (2004), Kazakhstan (2005), Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (2006), Ukraine (2007), Italy and USA (2008) and Albania (2009).

Dame Audrey has worked in Baghdad as a Human Rights Adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Trustee
Dr Adrian Grounds

Adrian Grounds is a forensic psychiatrist with research interests in the needs of mentally disordered prisoners, provision of secure psychiatric services, and the psychological consequences of wrongful imprisonment. He was previously (prior to retirement in April 2010) University Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychiatry, Honorary Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.
He is a Sentence Review Commissioner and Parole Life Sentence Review Commissioner Commissioner in Northern Ireland and a Trustee of the Prison Reform Trust.

Trustee
Dr Ann Hagell

Dr Ann Hagell runs a Nuffield Foundation initiative on time trends in adolescent mental health. She is a chartered psychologist with a specific interest in at-risk adolescents and has undertaken social policy research in both the UK and the US (on a Fulbright Scholarship).
Overall she has authored or co-authored more than 50 articles, chapters and reports on adolescence, including three books, and has been Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Adolescence since 2000. Ann is also a professional adviser to the Research in Practice Partnership Board and a Trustee of the Association for Young People's Health.

Trustee
Lady Sylvia Jay

Lady Sylvia Jay is Chairman of L’Oréal UK, she is also currently a non-Executive Director of Alcatel Lucent, a non-Executive Director of Lazard Limited, a non-Executive Director of the French company Saint-Gobain, a non-Executive Director of The Body Shop, Chairman of the Pilgrim Trust, a Trustee of The Body Shop Foundation, a Trustee of  the Prison Reform Trust, a Trustee of the Entente Cordiale Scholarships Scheme.

Sylvia joined the Civil Service in 1971, having passed joint first in the civil service examination for fast stream administrators in the Home and Diplomatic services. Her civil service career, until she resigned in 1995, mainly concerned government financial aid to developing countries. She also worked in the Civil Service Selection Board to recruit fast stream administrators and diplomats; the French Ministère de la Cooperation; the French Trésor and was one of a small international team which set up the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. From 1996 to 2000, as wife of the British Ambassador to France, she oversaw the running of the Embassy Residence, entertaining some 12 – 14,000 guests a year. She was Director General of the Food & Drink Federation from January 2001 until August 2005 and a non-Executive Director of the French company Carrefour from 2003 to 2005. 

Trustee
Paul Maynard MP
Paul Maynard is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Blackpool North and Cleveleys. Born in Northwich, Cheshire in 1975, Paul started his education at a special school in Winsford and went on to study History at Oxford University. For a number of years prior to entering parliament in 2010 Paul worked as an adviser to the Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox in his health, Party Chairman, foreign affairs and defence portfolios. On being elected he became only the second person who has cerebral palsy to become a British MP.

Since entering Parliament Paul has developed a strong interest in prison reform and youth justice, this resulted in Paul securing a Westminster Hall debate on youth justice in March this year.

Trustee
Jim Monahan

Erwin James Monahan was born to itinerant Scottish parents in Somerset in 1957. A family lifestyle described as, “brutal and rootless” by a prison psychologist following the death of his mother when James was seven, led to a limited formal education.  His directionless way of life, which included a period as a fugitive in the French Foreign Legion continued, until August 1984 when he began his life sentence for murder. James went to prison an inarticulate and ill-educated individual with, in his own words, “massive failings to overcome.” With few apparent skills or abilities his prison beginnings were unpromising. After some encouragement from a prison worker however he embarked on a programme of part-time education. Six years later he graduated with the Open University, gaining an arts degree majoring in History. Around the same time he developed an interest in writing. His first article for a national newspaper, The Independent, appeared in 1994. In 1995 he won first prize in the annual Koestler Awards for prose. His first article in The Guardian newspaper appeared in 1998 and he began writing a regular column for the paper entitled A Life Inside in 2000. A year after his release from prison in 2004 James became a trustee of the Prison Reform Trust and in September 2009 he became a trustee of the Alternatives to Violence Project Britain. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (FRSA) and an Honorary Master of the Open University. Erwin James now works full-time as a freelance writer.

Trustee
Michelle Nelson

Michelle Nelson is a barrister, who both defends and prosecutes. She has defended in cases from theft to child cruelty and prosecuted violence, drug supply and importation. She is on the Attorney General’s List and has been instructed to prosecute in large frauds and large-scale money laundering cases on their behalf. She prosecutes for the Serious Fraud office, including acting for them in relation to a Microsoft copyright fraud. Her work includes dealing with restraint and confiscation and she has worked at the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office advising on and pursuing restraint and forfeiture. In 2004, she spent three months in Jamaica defending in capital murder cases. She advises the Attorney General on and has represented the Attorney General in the Court of Appeal in unduly lenient sentence appeals.  

Michelle is a trustee of the board of the Prison Reform Trust. In this capacity she works to encourage reform of the prison system, whether by reducing the prison population or better providing for those in custody. Specifically, she advises on legal issues relevant to reform for example, the effect of IPP sentences. 

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