Commission on women offenders
Final report of the Commission on Women Offenders, which was established to examine how female offenders are dealt with in the criminal justice system.
Final report of the Commission on Women Offenders, which was established to examine how female offenders are dealt with in the criminal justice system.
In March 2010, Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJI) published a report into the treatment of people with mental health problems in the criminal justice system, starting with the police, moving through the prosecution to the courts and ending up with prisons and probation.
The report – while noting some excellent practice – documented a range of deficiencies with current arrangements and highlighted the enormous challenges the treatment of people with mental health issues presented to the criminal justice agencies.
Evidence collected in this briefing makes the case that the government needs to take urgent steps to limit the unnecessary use of prison, ensuring it is reserved for serious, persistent and violent offenders for whom no alternative sanction is appropriate.
This article examines projections, or statistical forecasts, of prison populations from a social perspective, treating them as social actors in their own right. Linear regression – the almost universal foundation of prison population projections – is in simple terms the act of drawing a straight line through the data at an angle which best ‘fits’ the observed data, that is, what has already happened.
Home Detention Curfew (HDC) and open prison are both forms of ‘conditional liberty’, where prisoners are allowed controlled access to the community. Schemes of conditional liberty are intended to provide a gradual transition from prison to community thus facilitating a person’s reintegration. On an HDC licence, prisoners live at home but must wear an electronically monitored tag and keep to a curfew; in open prison, prisoners live at the prison but can be granted home leave and participate in activities that prepare them for release.
The second and final paper in the Reform Sector Strategies project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
The two papers produced as part of this work intend to generate debate among those committed to reducing the prison population on how to tackle prison expansion in England and Wales and bring about a reduction in the prison population in the longer term.
Briefing paper on foreign national women in prison in England and Wales.
Report on visits made to prisons on mental health services in Scotland.
‘Bromley Briefings’ produced in memory of Keith Bromley, a valued friend of the Prison Reform Trust and allied groups concerned with prisons and human rights.
His support for refugees from oppression, victims of torture and the falsely imprisoned made a difference to many people’s lives.
Paper commissioned by the RSA to inform the development of a major new practical project it is considering.
It aims to set out a vision for RSA Transitions, a new model of community prison and “through the gate” provision which would be designed, built and managed around a culture of learning and social enterprise with the aim of rehabilitating people through increasing their capacity to work and resettle.