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Alcohol/Drugs/Gambling
What did people buy on Silk Road?

Last month (29 May 2015) the founder of Silk Road, the online black market, was given a life sentence.
But why was the site so popular? The short answer is that it made the purchase of illegal drugs triaghtforward and secure.

According to prosecutors, the site generated about $214 million in sales between early 2011 and late 2013. In late 2011 and 2012, while the site was still active, Carnegie Mellon’s Nicolas Christin gathered eight months of data that shows the 20 most popular categories purchased on Silk Road.

19th June 2015
Infographics
Just how many people do US police shoot dead?

The invaluable Statista website recently published the damning infographic below showing that, allowing for the difference in population, you are 100 times more likely to be shot dead by a police officer in the US than the UK.

18th June 2015
Alcohol/Drugs/Gambling
The European Drug Report 2015

Earlier this month the EMCDDA published its annual European Drugs Report. My experience is that these reports get more useful every year. In addition to the opportunity to see how UK drug use both resembles and differs from patterns of use in different parts of the continent, the report also gives a very useful heads-up on trends in how countries respond to the issue of drugs. This year’s report focuses in particular on: Drug market dynamics – global influences and local differences; Trends in drug use and Developments in health and social responses

17th June 2015
Prison
Ombudsman says too many vulnerable prisoners are segregated

The number of prison suicides and incidents of self-harm has risen sharply recently. Despite the best intentions of the Ombudsman, I fear it is reasonable to expect the figures to get worse and for more human lives to be needlessly lost as the Ministry of Justice embarks on another round of cuts.

16th June 2015
Alcohol/Drugs/Gambling
10 things I learnt from the 2015 Global Drug Survey

The Global Drug Survey becomes more valuable every year; this year over 100,000 people completed the survey. The survey is very different from research such as the Crime Survey for England and Wales because it is typically completed by regular, mainly recreational, drug users. The findings make fascinating reading and I recommend that you find time for a browse.

15th June 2015
Infographics
Hate crime in Europe

Following the recent depressing inspection report that found British criminal justice agencies are doing very little to tackle disability hate crime, I thought it might be interesting to look more generally at the prevalence of hate crime within the European Union. As you can see, even with the acknowledged under-reporting of hate crimes, the figures are extremely worrying.

12th June 2015
Alcohol/Drugs/Gambling
Three key approaches to tackling complex needs

We are only just beginning to understand the full challenge of how to help people facing multiple or complex needs. People facing multiple needs are in every community in Britain and it is estimated that 58,000 people face all three problems of homelessness, substance misuse and offending in any one year. Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) is a coalition of Clinks, Homeless Link and Mind which has just (2 June 2015) published a report advising policy makers on this issue.

11th June 2015
Criminal Justice
A victim’s guide to restorative justice

A victim’s guide to restorative justice is a new film for victims of crime explaining the different points in the criminal justice system where they can access restorative justice. It also tells them who they can contact if they want to make use of this approach.

10th June 2015
On Probation
The identity of new probation

Interviewees often described a sense of loss, talking about the experience of being forced to transfer to the CRC as a bereavement or divorce. Many staff were extremely angry and upset at being forced out of the public sector whose values they explicitly espoused. There was also a strong sense of loss from long-time colleagues who were being transferred to the National Probation Service.

9th June 2015
Infographics
Police don’t understand the impact of cuts

£2.3 billion was cut from police budgets in the five years since 2010/11 – a cut of between 12% and 23% for individual police forces. These figures are from the recent (4 June 2015) National Audit Office report: “Financial sustainability of police forces in England and Wales”. NAO reports are invaluable, in my opinion, because the organisation has no political axe to grind and merely examines costs and performance as fairly as possible.

8th June 2015
Prison
Prisoners tend to view law solely as an instrument of punishment

Christoper McDonald, a former IPP prisoner , provided the audience with insight into the reality of life on the inside, far away from the court room. ‘For about two years I stayed in a cell that was no longer than my arm span, with two to three other people in a cell,’ he explained. ‘Later on in my sentence I was represented by Lubia [Begum-Rob, joint managing solicitor at PAS], who told me I do have rights, and we could start to challenge some of the decisions. More needs to be done to inform prisoners of what they are entitled to,’ he said.

6th June 2015
Criminal Justice
Justice system still lets down victims of disability hate crime

There has been little progress in improving the response of the police, probation and Crown Prosecution services to disability hate crime. That is the core finding of a recent (21 May 2015) joint inspection report. The report, officially titled “Joint review disability hate crime follow-up”, was designed to see how these three key agencies (although of course probation is now split into the National Probation Service and 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies) had responded to a critical joint inspection in March 2013. That earlier report set out seven recommendations which is the focus of this review.

5th June 2015

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