Corston Coalition » policy

After the election: where now?

Antonia Bance — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:57:51 +0000

The Corston Coalition recently held a morning seminar for an invited audience of charities, funders, civil servants and academics. The mornig’s introductory speech was given by Richard Garside, the director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. Richard has helpfully posted what he said on his blog.

How would women prisoners vote, if they could?

Antonia Bance — Tue, 11 May 2010 10:09:14 +0000

Here is a fascinating short piece from Nacro about a discussion between women prisoners about the election.

Photo: secretlondon123 2009

Invest in “not prison”

Antonia Bance — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:28:24 +0000

Launching her annual report, the Chief Inspector of Prisons says in the Guardian:
“Investing in prisons is not enough; we need to invest in ‘not prison’. I said it eight years ago when I became chief inspector, and it remains true. We need, as the all-party Justice Committee said recently, to “shift resources away from incarceration towards rehabilitation and prevention”.

Diverting women away from crime

Antonia Bance — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:00:30 +0000

Today the government have announced their new strategy for diverting women away from crime, which sets out their progress two years on from accepting the recommendations of the Corston Report.

The Ministry of Justice press release says:

Today Justice Minister Maria Eagle announced a commitment to reduce women’s prison places by 400 before March 2012 so funding can be diverted for specialist services in the community. [...] The women’s community projects will offer courts a tough and credible alternative to short prison sentences. They will all tackle women’s needs in order to reduce their risk of further offending. Many of the projects will offer Community Payback work and supervision requirements as part of a Community Order, enabling women to address their offending behaviour in addition to being punished for their offence. These sentences can be more effective in cutting further offending.

Conservative party focus on rehabilitation

Antonia Bance — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:03:52 +0000

Some time ago, the Conservative party unveiled plans to create more prison places through selling off prime city centre prison sites and using the money to fund newer, more efficient prisons. It’s now been confirmed that this is unlikely to go ahead in the current economic climate by Channel 4 news:

Senior Conservative figures now accept privately that, particularly in the wake of the economic crisis and plummeting property prices, the original plans were “over-optimistic”. Instead, the Tories plan to convert some open jails into category C prisons, and focus much more heavily on rehabilitation so that those leaving prisons do not end up reoffending and returning to jail. This marks a fundamental rethink of the Tory promise that “prison works”. The mantra is now “rehabilitation, not incarceration”.