The good and the bad of the sentencing reforms
Our prisons are nearly full to bust once again so the Ministry of Justice has been flying some kites ahead…
Is the era of cowardly criminals hiding from court over?
The disconnect between actions and consequences that bedevils this country’s justice system suffered a modest reversal today. The government has…
The HMP Frankland attack should never have happened
How do you break the rule of law inside our jails? You could do worse than try to murder a…
Are our jails unfixable?
The Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report, published today, addresses the prison cell crisis in the UK, highlighting huge government…
Britain is not prepared for car ramming terrorist attacks
At least two people have died and several injured after a car was driven down a busy shopping street yesterday…
Gentler stop and search tactics won’t keep Britain safe
What sort of mojo do you want your police officer to bring with them the next time you’re stopped and…
Cracking down on Facebook won’t stop teenagers being radicalised
I’ve yet to meet an oncologist, thank God. But if I did turn up to be told I had cancer…
Why do Home Office staff think talk of two-tier policing is ‘extremist’?
How do you create a low-trust society? One way to do so is to have an administrative class which seems to treat…
Prevent is not solely to blame for Southport failings
The assailant in the Southport massacre has pleaded guilty to the murders of three children in the town last year.…
Empty pledges won’t solve the knife crime epidemic
On 23 September last year at 6.30 p.m. in the evening in a street in Woolwich, London, Daejaun Campbell cried…
How front-line police were failed in the summer riots
The police establishment has delivered its initial verdict on this summer’s rioting, following the massacre of children at Southport. Andy…
Why Labour’s policing targets won’t work
This week, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper plans to announce new police performance targets. Perhaps the government has been stung…
Is Airbnb to blame for rising crime in London?
Does Airbnb drive up crime in London? That’s the question posed of the world’s most successful short-term rental service in…
Mass prisoner releases aren’t working
Today, over a thousand offenders will walk out of jail early as part of the government’s ongoing emergency scheme to…
Texas-style reforms won’t save our prisons
Texas. Big country, big ideas. The new Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has become enamoured with an intriguing…
Labour’s early prison release scheme can’t afford to fail
Are you ready for SDS40? You might need to be if you’re unlucky enough to live in a high crime…
How long can our prison system carry on like this?
Can the Ministry of Justice carry on without our failing prison system seizing up altogether? Today we learned that Magistrates…
Why the police have lost the public’s trust
The Home Secretary has admitted a thing that has long been known to those of us without close protection officers: that…
Can our prisons take these thugs?
The last comparable period of civil disorder in this country happened in 2011. Then as now, the courts acted with…
The ‘community cohesion’ concept explains confusing police tactics
Merseyside police were very keen to rule out the Southport attack as ‘terrorism-related’. This was despite subsequent remarks from the…
Of course whole-life prisoners should be banned from marrying
Is there any point in rehabilitating prisoners sentenced to ‘whole life’ tariffs, who will die in custody? Today’s announcement banning…
How Labour’s jail strategy could come unstuck
Let’s talk cobblers. The Prime Minister has responded to the jail space crisis by ennobling the nation’s shoe mender-in-chief James Timpson…
There is no quick fix for Britain’s overcrowded prisons
Imagine the scene. It’s Friday morning and the new Secretary of State for Justice, Shabanna Mahmood, has just slipped into…
Can Sinn Fein win the UK’s most marginal constituency again?
It’s Monday afternoon and I’m walking through the estate where I was born on the outskirts of Enniskillen in Northern…
Tougher sentences won’t stop women being killed
Manifestos come and go but women continue to be murdered by men they know in grotesquely high numbers. According to…
