5th November 2010
From the 1980s America has seen an explosion in prison numbers, becoming the world leader in regards the rate of incarceration. Every year since 1985 has seen a rise in the levels of people behind bars. A natural corollary of this has been massive growth in the cost of corrections to the state, up 674% in that time period. However, recent information provided by The Vera Institute of Justice in their report The Continuing Fiscal Crisis in Corrections: Setting a New Course has shown that these incredible and unprecedented increases may finally be coming to a halt. The catalyst for such being the onset of the worst economic downturn in America since the great depression.
28th October 2010
'Mothers Behind Bars' is a new U.S. report from the Rebecca Project for Human Rights and the National Women's Law Center, analysing federal and state policies on conditions of confinement for pregnant and parenting women and the effect upon their children.
21st October 2010
Justice Minister Kenneth Clarke has pledged to stem prisoner numbers and reduce the current prison population of 85,000 by 3,000 in four years. This will be achieved through sentencing reforms and the "rehabilitation revolution".
14th October 2010
Research carried out by the Howard League for Penal Reform, in collaboration with the Prison Governors' Association, has shown that many prison governors do not believe that short sentences are effective.
12th October 2010
A report from the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project on a national poll carried out in the US to explore public attitudes toward crime and punishment.
6th October 2010
Announcements have been made this week about plans to get prisoners working a full 40-hour week instead of spending their days in "enforced idleness" in prison cells. However, the extent to which such proposals would be workable in chronically overcrowded Irish prisons is less clear.
28th September 2010
Barnardos CEO criticises the political game that will get in the way of penal policy reform.
15th September 2010
A poll commissioned by the UK's Prison Reform Trust on the public's attitudes towards the imprisonment of children.
14th September 2010
A new report from the Prison Reform Trust and the Institute for Criminal Policy Research provides compelling evidence for the existence of pathways from disadvantage to the prison.
9th September 2010
Medical Justice have released a report which represents the first large scale exploration, in the UK, of the physical and psychological harms caused and aggravated by the detention of children for immigration purposes.
Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.