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Why penal reform should be a conservative issue
By Dan Van Ness
As reported earlier on RJOB, the Commission on Prisons Today recently released its report, Do Better, Do Less. Among other things it argues for expanded use of restorative justice programmes and policies.
One of the Commission members was Ian Loader, Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College. In an article on conservativehome.blogs.com, the website of the British Conservative Party, he argues that conservatives should be at the forefront of penal reform.
Jul 17, 2009 Policy, Correspondent:Dan Van Ness, Country:England&Wales, Politics
On delivering nuanced messages in a soundbite culture
By Dan Van Ness
"Trendy 'restorative justice' schemes to stamp out bullying at schools 'do not work'," the headline trumpeted. The article by Laura Clark on Mail Online (the website of the Daily Mail) began in the same vein:
"Trendy 'no punishment' approaches to tackling bullying are not working in many schools, a researcher warned yesterday.
"More than 600 schools use 'restorative justice' techniques which allow bullies to escape punishment if they face their victims and apologise.
"But a Cambridge University academic told a conference the approach has been 'widely exaggerated' as a remedy for bullying."
Jul 14, 2009 Media, Correspondent:Dan Van Ness, Story, Politics
More cautionary news from the US
By Dan Van Ness
United States public officials are reconsidering sentencing policies, driven by the increasingly high cost implications of current laws and practices. Mandatory sentencing laws, including Three Strikes legislation adopted in a number of states, take discretion away from judges and require prison sentences (often quite lengthy) be served.
Jul 13, 2009 Court, Correspondent:Dan Van Ness, Diversion, Region: North America and Caribbean, Policy, Politics, Country:USA
A comment on Do Better Do Less: The report of the Commission on English Prisons Today
by Martin Wright
The Commission on English Prisons Today is an independent commission set up in 2007 by the Howard League for Penal Reform. Its 77-page report details the growth in prison population in the UK, accompanied by a rise in the reconviction rate, and aggravated by 49 ‘law-and-order’ laws between 1980 and 2009. By contrast England in 1908-39, and Finland in 1960-2000, have shown that imprisonment can be deliberately reduced with no effect on the crime rate. Scotland is planning to do likewise.
Jul 10, 2009 Region:Europe, Country:England&Wales, Support, Correspondent:Martin Wright, Policy, Politics
Do Better Do Less: The report of the Commission on English Prisons Today
From the Executive Summary: England and Wales has become a jurisdiction which punishes excessively, harshly and with little attention paid to the relationship between legislation and impact on prison numbers. Prison has become the defining tool of the punishment process and we now imprison more of our population than almost any other country in western Europe.
Jul 06, 2009 Court, Diversion, Region: Europe, Prison, Policy, Politics, Country:England&Wales
