International News
U.S. Report: Ways of addressing the nation’s scale of incarceration
20th October 2015
The United States maintains its distinction as the nation with the highest rate of incarceration in the world. A report entitled, “The State of Sentencing 2014 Developments in Policy and Practice” was published by The Sentencing Project who are a national non-profit organization in the U S. The report documents the range of law and policy changes which were authorised by legislators in at least 30 states during 2014 which may have the effect of addressing the nation’s scale of incarceration.
UK: Report focuses on the views of family members of offenders with specific and particular needs
21st September 2015
The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) have recently published a report entitled “Relative Justice: the experiences and views of family members of people with particular needs in contact with criminal justice and liaison and diversion services”. Liaison and diversion is a process whereby individuals with particular vulnerabilities including: mental health problems; learning disabilities and substance misuse problems are identified and assessed as early as possible as they pass through the criminal justice system. The purpose of this report is to inform the development of liaison and diversion services prior to their national roll out in 2017.
The moral failures of America's prison-industrial complex
20th July 2015
An article in the Economist explains the moral issues of the mass-incarceration of Americans.
UK Report: Strangeways 25 Years On
15th April 2015
The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) have recently published a report, "Strangeways: 25 Years On", which assesses progress made in penal reform against Lord Woolf's 12 recommendations for a more fair and just prison system.
Council of Europe: Space I Annual Report on Penal Statistics in Europe
17th February 2015
The Council of Europe have published their Annual Penal Statistics (Space I Report) for 2013, which contains a detailed breakdown of a myriad of penological trends in Europe, many of which highlight ongoing problems in prisoner care and institutional management across all 49 European nations surveyed.
Scotland: New women's prison scrapped in favour of small community-based centres
26th January 2015
Plans for a new women's prison in Scotland have been scrapped, in favour of "smaller regional and community-based custodial facilities across the country".
Canadian Report on Pre-Trial Detention: 'Set Up To Fail'
12th August 2014
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) recently released a report, ‘Set Up To Fail: Bail and the Revolving Door of Pre-Trial Detention,’ which considers the use of pre-trial detention in the country.
UK Report: ‘We should operate with a Presumption Against Imprisonment’
11th August 2014
Prison should not be the ‘default sentence’, leading UK criminal justice experts argued in a report recently published (July 3rd 2014).
Eng & Wales: Howard League Commission on sex in prison
25th February 2014
The Howard League for Penal Reform has established an independent Commission on Sex in Prison to undertake the first ever review of both consensual and coercive sex inside prison.
UK: Charities say computers can transform prisoner rehabilitation – new report:
29th October 2013
The Prison Reform Trust and Prisoners Education Trust have launched a joint report, arguing that controlled internet access can improve prisoners' outcomes in education, family contact, resettlement between prisons and recidivism.
