Howard League Blog
Informal comment from our Chief Executive, Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.), and other contributors.
-
A young person being held in a state of limbo over a decision to allow him to attend his mother’s funeral
Two weeks ago I wrote about the efforts of our legal team to persuade a prison to escort a young person to see his dying mother. The prison had told the lad it was too short-staffed to take him. His mother died before he got the opportunity to visit her. Read more
-
Dangerous driving
On Sunday, the government announced plans to increase to life imprisonment the sentence for dangerous driving when someone has been killed. Read more
-
A young person prevented from saying goodbye to his dying mother
Yesterday I tweeted about the work one of our lawyers was doing to try and get a prison to escort a young person to see his dying mother. The prison refused. It appears it is so short-staffed it could not escort him. Read more
-
Guidance issued to magistrates following Howard League legal case
Some weeks ago Howard League lawyers took legal action against two magistrates courts for unlawfully ordering the police to arrest a child for not paying a fine. As a result the 15-year-old boy was detained for two nights at the police station. Read more
-
Turning off the prison treadmill
Today HM Chief Inspector of Prisons has published his report on people on an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) who are still in prison years past their tariff. This Kafka-esque sentence was introduced by Labour in 2003 and caught 8,711 men and women in its net until it was abolished by Ken Clarke in 2012. Read more
-
Recruit 2,500 more prison officers? Balderdash
The central plank of the government’s plan to deal with the prison crisis is the recruitment of more officers. They claim they are going to recruit an additional 2,500 front line officers, and this will allow staff to be responsible for six prisoners each, forming relationships and overseeing their journey through the prison system. Balderdash. Read more
-
What is Liz Truss going to do?
The (relatively) new Secretary of State, Liz Truss, is to give her first speech on prisons policy on Thursday. Read more
-
A plan to save lives in prison
Since the new Secretary of State for Justice was appointed in July, 26 men and women have taken their own lives in prison. They all hanged themselves. Read more
-
We’ve tried expecting prisons to rehabilitate and they just don’t
The RSA has today published a report suggesting the purpose of prison should be changed to one that is truly about rehabilitation. Read more
-
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
-
Join the Howard League
We are the world's oldest prison charity, bringing people together to advocate for change.
Join us and make your voice heard -
Support our work
We safeguard our independence and do not accept any funding from government.
Make a donation