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Howard League Blog

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

  • 18 Feb 2021
    Add your voice to the Stop Building Women’s Prisons campaign

    The response to our call for action to put a stop to building more women’s prisons has been overwhelming – thank you everyone. More than 100 MPs have been emailed and many of them by several constituents.  Read more

  • 15 Feb 2021
    Stop building women’s prisons

    The government has announced that it is to increase the number of prison cells for women by 500. This is despite the number of women in prison falling and there now being 591 fewer women in prison than at this time last year.  Read more

  • 5 Jan 2021
    The new lockdown announcement will bring desolation to prisons

    The last ten months have been extremely difficult for all of us, and my heart goes out to the families who have lost a loved one. It has, of course, been particularly awful for prisoners and challenging for prison staff.  Read more

  • 14 Dec 2020
    A decade of success that has benefitted hundreds of thousands of children

    One of the Howard League successes I am most proud of is the work with police to reduce child arrests. When a decade ago we discovered that police were carrying out a third of a million child arrests a year, it was so shocking that we decided to act.  Read more

  • 9 Nov 2020
    Prison for their ‘own protection’ has no place in a modern justice system

    The All Party Parliamentary Group on Women in the Penal System, supported by the Howard League, is calling on the government to abolish an outdated law that gives courts the extraordinary power to send people to prison for their ‘own protection’.  Read more

  • 14 Oct 2020
    Custody Time Limits

    The court system is creaking with delays that have been exacerbated by Covid. I am hearing of cases delayed by months, or even years.  Read more

  • 30 Sep 2020
    Strengthening the independent scrutiny bodies

    A consultation is closing with Ministry of Justice stakeholders on strengthening the independent scrutiny bodies through legislation. The consultation itself took the form of an online questionnaire, but I thought it would be good to outline the Howard League’s response on my blog.   Read more

  • 15 Sep 2020
    Remembering deaths in custody

    I have been going through my records of deaths in custody. I have kept a careful record of every single person who has died in prison in England and Wales since 1988.  Read more

  • 27 Aug 2020
    Questions from members

    Our members and regular supporters are the very beating heart of the charity. We rely on them for information about what’s happening across the country and for their activity in holding local decision makers to account.  Read more

  • 25 Aug 2020
    Our legal work with young people in prison – feedback from families

    Our legal service works with children and young adults prison, supporting them with a wide spectrum of unmet legal need, from helping them find somewhere safe to live on release to challenging their conditions in prison.   Read more

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