On Wednesday 9 November 2011, after eight hours of deliberation, a jury at Newcastle Crown Court revealed its final verdict on the trial of Kevan Thakrar – not guilty of any of the five charges he faced. The verdict would usually have...
Read moreMichael Teague asks why UK penal policy is so influenced by the American experience. ‘Our Europe-leading imprisonment rate appears positively puny compared to the USA’s muscular embrace of mass incarceration. If England and Wales had...
Read moreIf we consider the development of criminal justice policy in the USA over the last 40 years, we might deduce that all that is needed to resolve every single criminal justice issue can be condensed into this straightforward formula: employ more...
Read moreKen Clarke, the justice secretary, told MPs that changes were needed to make the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB) scheme economically sustainable. The changes to the compensation scheme form part of a new victims’ strategy...
Read moreCriminals are to be banned from making claims for injuries from a special fund set up to help victims of crime, according to the Guardian. Ken Clarke, the justice secretary, is expected to tell MPs that he will prevent prisoners from making...
Read moreLast week Europe’s highest human rights court found that the UK’s ‘whole life’ tariff did not constitute inhuman or degrading punishment contrary to article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (by a narrow 4-3 majority). While the media...
Read moreStrasbourg judges have dismissed an appeal from, Jeremy Bamber, Douglas Vintner and Peter Moore, that their ‘whole-life’ sentences should be struck down because they have no hope of release. The three – some of the 46 prisoners in the UK...
Read moreA recent report in the Independent has highlighted government plans to ban ‘convicted criminals’ from ‘claiming compensation for injuries sustained in attacks, in prison or after release’. The policy relates to payments from the...
Read moreEarlier this month the BBC screened a three-part drama series, Public Enemies. It starred Anna Friel as Paula, a probation officer supervising Daniel Mays’ Eddie, a released murderer, and focused on the relationship between them. Within a couple...
Read moreThe Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was wrong to ban the BBC from filming an interview with a terror suspect held for seven years without trial, judges ruled yesterday. The broadcaster said it wanted to film an interview with Babar Ahmad in prison to...
Read moreLife in prison – as any number of accounts of prison life document – is often experienced as painful, humiliating, and negative. Yesterday two prisoners, who challenged the Ministry of Justice over the practice of ‘slopping out’...
Read moreThe Lord Chief Justice is the UK’s most senior judge and has particular responsibility for the administration of criminal justice in the courts. When he suggests that the ‘fiendishly difficult’ law of murder needs reform, you might think that...
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