Criminal Justice | Russell Webster

Criminal Justice voluntary sector: Share your story

This is a chance to tell your story and help Clinks influence decision makers – responding to the State of the Sector survey is vitally important as it helps to develop an evidence base so Clinks can advocate on behalf of the sector. You’ll be helping Clinks to gauge the impact of policy changes on your organisation and the wellbeing of your service users. Your anonymised responses will make up a report which will be sent to key decision makers and influencers.

14th July 2015

Criminal courts get slower and slower

The latest (25 June 2015) Criminal Court Statistics, which cover January to March 2015, shows just why the new Justice Secretary Michael Gove is so keen to reform the system. The legal process continues to get slower.

9th July 2015

New Justice Secretary sets out his stall

An intriguing first speech from new Justice Secretary Michael Gove sets out a vision of “one nation justice policy.” The tone and content were so striking that the Guardian was moved to write an editorial sub-titled: “hope at last for penal reform?”

2nd July 2015

No health without justice, no justice without health

The reason for targeting health interventions at offenders is that poor health is often interlinked with offending. Offenders are known to suffer disproportionately from multiple and complex health issues which are often exacerbated by the difficulties they experience in accessing health and social care services in the local community.

25th June 2015

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

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

PCCs spotlight better mental health practice

The election of a Conservative government means that PCCs are here to stay (Labour would have abolished them), and there is much to learn from how the first generation of PCCs have approached these challenging partnership issues, and used their role to help improve responses in their area. Given the current state of crisis in the police, probation and prison services, the leadership of PCCs may turn out to be critical and there is real value in this briefing series which points the way forward, instead of merely identifying problems.

4th June 2015

How to tackle inequality in the Justice System

The value of this report is that it does not waste time and space rehearsing the depressing level of inequality within the criminal justice system, with which everyone is familiar.
Instead, it focuses on practical ways forward grounded in the real life work of a number of pioneering voluntary sector organisations.

29th May 2015

What next for justice?

Guest bloggers came from a wide range of viewpoints including several organisations with a particular criminal justice focus including prison reform, employment for women offenders, restorative justice etc. This, thankfully, made for very different priorities with limited repetition. Nevertheless, four key themes emerged from this spectrum of views.

27th May 2015

Lowest number of offenders since records began

We know that crime rates have been falling steadily over the last 20 years but what about other trends in the criminal justice system. The MoJ has just (21 May 2015) published its report on activity in the criminal justice system for 2014. The total number of individuals dealt with formally by the CJS hit an all time low at 1.73 million.

23rd May 2015

We need a new focus on complex needs

The report recommends investing £216 million over three years which should realise extensive savings since the current annual costs for the 58,000 individuals with substance misuse, criminal justice and homelessness problems is estimated at between £1.1 billion and 2.1 billion per year.

22nd May 2015

The Justice priorities of Unlock

As things stand, a criminal record is for life, no matter how old or minor. This is despite knowing that, in particular, young people make mistakes when they’re young. In essence, young people should be allowed to fail. Ways to properly and fully ‘wipe the slate clean’ for minor offending should be established.

21st May 2015

Keep up-to-date with drugs and crime

The latest research, policy, practice and opinion on our criminal justice and drug & alcohol treatment systems

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