Headline grabbing
Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, has been busy. Today he is talking about extradition laws and the papers this morning are reporting his idea that the police should take mobile phones from...
View ArticleRage against the machine
It seems that rage is the centre of the news today. Whether we have the right to inflict retribution following an assault in our home, and raging against the pop music of television talent shows....
View ArticleThe politics of sentencing
The Howard League was founded almost 150 years ago to lead the campaign to abolish capital punishment and to consider how we should instead be dealing with people who commit offences, including the...
View ArticleOn the Justice Secretary’s latest announcements
I have been most remiss at my blogging, particularly as the last few days saw the Justice Secretary go into overdrive with announcements. So I thought I should comment on what I think might be behind...
View ArticleProposed changes to judicial review process
The justice secretary is now planning to prevent interest groups from challenging national and local government decisions in the courts through judicial review. This would be a step towards despotic...
View ArticleThe new amendment to prison rules will have a deleterious effect on children...
The Secretary of State for Justice recently announced that prisoners who cause damage to prisons and prison property will have to pay for the cost of repairs. The amendment to prison rules is being...
View ArticleDon’t be fooled by the government’s deceit over women’s prisons
Deceit is a strong word, defined as saying one thing and purposefully doing the opposite, and it describes the Ministry of Justice announcement on women prisoners. Last week, it trumpeted plans that...
View ArticleDead budgies and prison rules
Chris Grayling is really getting down and dirty with the detail of prisoners’ lives as the new rules he has introduced stipulate that you can have an alive budgie but not a dead one. Prisoners have...
View ArticlePayment by results has failed and what is coming is a lot worse
The long-anticipated results from the payment by results pilots in Peterborough and Doncaster prisons show that both projects have failed. Peterborough missed its target of reducing reoffending by 10...
View ArticlePolitics, charities and civil society
Last Sunday the Secretary of State for Justice wrote an article for the Telegraph attacking charities for being politically biased. It was posted and then taken down almost immediately, but I expect it...
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