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Howard League Blog

Informal comment from our Chief Executive, Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.), and other contributors.

  • 18 Oct 2016
    Helping prisoners into work after Brexit

    We all know that getting a job on release from prison is one of the best ways of staying away from crime. But prisons do not equip you to get work-ready. In fact, they do the opposite.  Read more

  • 14 Oct 2016
    Dying in prison

    It always used to be the case that prisons were full of young men. Nowadays, prisons hold a lot more older men.  Read more

  • 3 Oct 2016
    Distance from home for children in custody

    Last week a report commissioned by the Youth Justice Board into distance from home for children in custody was published by HM Inspectorate of Prisons. It found that children held further away from home get fewer visits from families and professionals.  Read more

  • 30 Sep 2016
    Prison Diaries

    Earlier this month, to mark the Howard League’s 150th birthday, we invited prisoners to tell us what life is really like in prison by keeping a diary for a day.  Read more

  • 16 Sep 2016
    A depressing week

    It has been a depressing week for those of us involved in prisons. The inquest into a teenager who took his own life in troubled Glen Parva prison heard from the governor that she did not have sufficient staff even to keep people alive.  Read more

  • 9 Sep 2016
    World Suicide Prevention Day

    It is a terrible thing to lose a family member to suicide; even worse when they take their own life inside a prison. I remember the mother of a 19-year-old who hanged himself in Leeds prison telling me that he had been a troubled boy but at least she now thought he would be safe. How wrong she was.  Read more

  • 8 Sep 2016
    The Children and Social Work Bill

    The Children and Social Work Bill is currently being considered by Parliament. The legislation was touted as implementing a range of additional safeguards but it contains a number of frankly terrifying ‘exemption clauses’ which would allow local authorities to seek permission to disapply a wide range of legal duties in the name of ‘innovation’.  Read more

  • 6 Sep 2016
    An impossible position: Stay in solitary confinement or get beaten up in a cell?

    Last year the Howard League revealed that thousands of years of additional imprisonment had been imposed on prisoners for misbehaviour in prison. Additional days, imposed on prisoners by visiting district judges, place additional strain on a prison system under unprecedented stress.  Read more

  • 1 Aug 2016
    Transforming Rehabilitation is having a disastrous impact on women

    The Howard League provides support to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Women in the Penal System chaired by Baroness Corston. The APPG has been looking at the treatment of women in the new landscape of privatised community penalties. Later this year it will be publishing research based on oral hearings and written submissions.  Read more

  • 29 Jul 2016
    The manifest injustice of the IPP

    The Chair of the Parole Board, Nick Hardwick, suggested this week that the people serving indeterminate sentences should be released once their tariff has expired unless it can be proved they continue to be a risk. This is a reversal of the current burden of proof that requires people to prove they are safe.  Read more

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