Prisons in the Press – 30 October

Prison parties, ageing inmates and Oscar Wilde…   

... Image:

The jail that housed Oscar Wilde could soon be dedicated to his memory. Image: DPMS

Prisons in the press brings you the best articles from the past week to keep you up-to-date on prison news.

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Interview with author Lucy Baldwin: mothers on mothers in criminal justice

 

Lucy Baldwin and fellow authors draw on personal and professional experience for Mothering Justice

 

 

Lucy Baldwin, criminology lecturer at De Montfort University

Writer Lucy Baldwin says she has compiled the first whole book about motherhood in criminal and social justice

“A pregnant woman has her head swimming with things she should or shouldn’t know or do. Girls are born into this landscape that expects them to be a mother – but only a certain type of mother,” Read the rest of this entry »


Prisons in Parliament

Andrew Selous on the witness stand this week: it’s question time for prisons

Andrew Selous Under Secretary of State for Justice got a grilling last week

Prisons in Parliament brings you up-to-date on the last week of politics and prisons. What’s been said? And by whom? Get it all here. 

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Prisons in the press – 23 October

 

Access to libraries cut and use of illegal highs is on the rise   

Now books and letters are being used to smuggle drugs into prison. Image: banlon1964

Now books and letters are being used to smuggle drugs into prison. Image: banlon1964

Prisons in the press brings you the best articles from the past week to keep you up-to-date on prison news.

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Nine charts and tables on children in UK courts and prisons

Good and bad news for young people in trouble 

Source: Publik15 on Flickr

 

The state of the youth justice system in the United Kingdom has been laid bare in a new report by the National Association of Youth Justice (NAYJ), which campaigns for a child-friendly youth justice system. The charts and tables below tell the story, much of it positive.

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Comment: Cautiously optimistic about Gove’s prison reform promises

Eric Allison scrutinises Gove’s proclamations about reforming the prison system 

Michael Gove Conservative Party conference 2015

“We shouldn’t ignore the failures in our criminal justice system. And the biggest failure of all is the failure in our prisons,” Gove told the Conservative party conference. Photo: Conservatives.

 

In my first column for Prison Watch UK, back in August, I touched on the appointment of Michael Gove as justice secretary. I said he was at least talking honestly about the massive problems in the prison system
and had overturned the ridiculous ban – imposed by his predecessor, Chris Grayling – on sending books to prisoners.

Since then, Gove has taken it up a notch. At the Conservative party conference he continued to talk truthfully about the problems in the prison system. But he also went much further, further in fact than I have heard a politician go in many a long year.

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Prisons in Parliament

Should a guilty plea have a price tag?

Parly pic

Prisons in Parliament brings you up-to-date on the last week of politics and prisons. What’s been said? And by whom? Get it all here. 

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Prisons in the press – 16 October

The jailhouse is rocking and prison populations soar   

Prisoners threw a party that the wardens definitely weren't invited to... Image:

Prisoners threw a party that the wardens definitely weren’t invited to… Image: Bart Heird

Prisons in the press brings you the best articles from the past week to keep you up-to-date on prison news.

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Re:Form according to Frank

Incarceration uncovered: a snapshot tour of the Re:Form exhibition

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Frank next to his favourite painting

After spending 30 years in and out of prison, Frank now wants to stay on “the right side of the fence”. He has a degree in criminology through the Prisoner’s Education Trust and is running tours of the Koestler Trust’s Re:Form exhibition.

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Re:Form takes London by storm

Incarcerated artists collaborate for a unique exhibition at Southbank centre

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The Re:Form exhibition at Southbank centre

 

Produced by the Koestler Trust and Southbank Centre, Re:Form exhibits works by prisoners, offenders on community sentences, secure psychiatric patients and immigration detainees.

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