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10 things I learnt from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman
The new Justice Secretary Michael Gove has made much of the need to have an ethical criminal justice system. One step hemight take would be to make the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s recommendations legally enforceable.

Interesting things about alcohol and other drugs (Sept 2015)
I’ve long been a fan of Andrew Brown’s monthly round of interesting facts about alcohol and other drugs which he has unearthed from a wide range of recent reports, statistical releases and the like.

Reviewing prison education
I think the main challenges will be as much to with the practicalities of ensuring that there are enough staff to ensure that prisoners get to classes and providing the right incentives to get talented teachers to work in custodial settings.

The role of tagging in offender management
Advocates of tagging typically advanced the cost effectiveness argument where they compare the cost of tagging – according to the Reform report somewhere between £8 to £16 per day for the new GPS tags – with the average cost of the prison place of approximately £73.

Families fight for treatment for vulnerable offenders
This is a timely report that reminds us all how much families are neglected in the criminal justice system. Unlike many other countries, approbation, and even youth justice, services tend to focus on the individual offender and often view interested family members as a necessary evil rather than affected others with an important role to contribute themselves.

Austerity is an opportunity to shrink the justice system
Will the prospect of saving billions of pounds (if Pentonville prison were closed, selling off the land to developers would probably generate several hundred million pounds alone), tempt the Chancellor and Justice Secretary to shift justice policy in a very different direction?
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