My brilliant colleagues' recent funding successes have opened up 2 fixed term positions in our criminology team at @edinburghnapier.bsky.social; if you are an early career researcher, or you are finishing up/just out of a PhD, we would love to hear from you.

Just Images is a new #podcast about crime & culture created by students at University of Stirling in Cultural and Creative #Criminology module, led by Dr Phil Crockett Thomas. All episodes made by students, apart from the first (an interview with Dr Lucy Cathcart Frödén) justimagespodcast.stir.ac.uk

🧑‍⚖️ | The first book in a decade to focus entirely on Scotland’s criminal justice system has been published. Learn more about Criminal Justice in Scotland ⤵️ Story ➡️ orlo.uk/zWH3F #MustBeNapier | @socscinapier.bsky.social

And today’s publication day! Massive thanks to my lovely @socscinapier.bsky.social co-authors, Jamie Buchan & @kmmorrison.bsky.social - and to everyone who helped by reviewing chapters, answering queries or chatting to us about their work. www.routledge.com/Criminal-Jus...

This is the first book in a decade to look at the Scottish criminal justice system as a whole. Tomorrow is final day to get the discounted offer…

We have an opening for a one-year Sociology Lectureship in Glasgow focused on teaching the sociology of class. Please share it with anyone interested. www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...

Critical AI in Higher Education event in Edinburgh, Monday 1st September Featuring @semacrae.bsky.social @karengregory.bsky.social @huwcdavies.bsky.social @benpatrickwill.bsky.social and more to be added. Sign up link here...and please share!

Scotland’s distinctive criminal justice system is nicely summarised in the first chapter (free to read) of James Buchan, Sarah Anderson and Katrina Morrisons new book *Criminal Justice in Scotland* s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-store-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/978100337288...

New article on utopia, abolition and science fiction published open access @thesociologicalreview.org! If you want to read the creative writing by the project's (brilliant) participants which I discuss in the paper, the eBook is free to download at abolitionscifi.org

NEW #textbook on Criminal Justice in #Scotland by me & @edinburghnapier.bsky.social @socscinapier.bsky.social colleagues, Jamie Buchan and @kmmorrison.bsky.social, out on 4th Aug. Until the 1st it's £8 off in the Routledge sale: www.routledge.com/Criminal-Jus...

Surveillance on bank accounts is *very* intrusive - it’s not just about money, it can reveal all kinds of personal and behavioural traits that are none of the government’s business. It’s also a matter of dignity: why should benefit claimants have to sacrifice that?

A sheriff has ruled Jack McKenzie's Polmont suicide was preventable. He also said 2 prison officers who failed to carry out a proper hatch-check an hour before Jack's body was found should have been disciplined/retrained. My @heraldscotland.bsky.social story. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2517634...

Just out! Our peer-reviewed critique of the Cass Review has been published by BMC Medical Research Methodology. Please read and share. We show that the Cass Review is fatally flawed and should not be the basis for policy or practice in transgender healthcare. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A sharp rise in the use of discipline and (further) punishment within Scottish prisons. "Prison chiefs dished out 64,146 punishments to inmates flouting regulations – up from 47,803 in 2022/23." Obviously, instances of violence are awful for all affected. theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2025/05/exam...

Major new report out today from SCCJR on the number of deaths in custody. ❗️Prison deaths in Scotland have surged to 64 in the last year. bit.ly/deaths-in-cu... Watch this short video to find out the key stats👇

No apology. Not so much as an acknowledgement of what Peter Sullivan has been through. www.merseyside.police.uk/news/merseys...

Utterly delighted to see this MSc out in the world after so much hard work went into its design. Come study #criminology (and #zemiology) with us at @edinburghnapier.bsky.social, you couldn't find a better team than the outstanding scholars and educators I have the pleasure of calling my colleagues

If you've not already signed this in support of @uniteucu.bsky.social, you still can. Staff working conditions are our organising conditions tinyurl.com/UCUUniteSoli...

These are not isolated experiences.

Why do we strike? We’ll let our members give you some reasons why.

At our Family Listening Day, 23 people spoke about the cover-ups, victim-blaming & defensiveness they have faced in their fight for truth & accountability. They say Hillsborough Law must include a duty of candour & legal aid funding for victims of disasters or deaths involving the state.

Today, bereaved families and survivors have issued a clear warning to Government that Hillsborough Law must be "All or Nothing". Our new report shows how the injustice following the Hillsborough disaster is still a painful reality today. Read our report: www.inquest.org.uk/hillsborough...

Miner's Strike 1984-1985, 40th anniversary stained glass window. Kincardine Library. Fife. Scotland. Designed and made by the Local community and Keira Mclean. #stainedglass #scotland

It gets worse… Members back at work today after taking lawful strike action are now being threaten with disciplinary procedures if their auto-replies mention the reason for their absence during future strikes. In what trade union world is this acceptable?

Just to reiterate, the employer in this case is a UNION who encourages its own members to raise awareness of their own action (just google UCU and ´out of office’s message wording to see multiple examples) but is censoring staff who try to raise awareness of theirs. #ucu

279 OLRs have been imposed since 2006, but only 24 people have been released, with 8 recalled to prison. Source: www.rma.scot/olr/about-the-olr/ #NOLR #PrisonReform

The OLR violates the basic principles of justice and has no place in Scotland if it wishes to be a fair and progressive country. Want to help? Go to nolr.org/how-you-can-..., where you can find a template letter to your MSP, make a donation or contact us and join us as a member.

'I think an awful lot of this is about the containment of anxiety and I think it makes us feel an awful lot better to have spent thousands of pounds on a snazzy report, it makes us feel better' (Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist) #NOLR #JusticeSystem

When you are on an OLR, the system is so rigid and it is so bureaucratic, it’s not like any other long sentence because it has so many extra layers of bureaucracy, so it is easier being a life sentenced prisoner (Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist) #NOLR

'I think one of the biggest flaws for me is that it's under-resourced, and there isn't enough case managers, there is not enough specialist services' (Policy professional, RMA) #JusticeScot #NOLR

The OLR no's increase and we don’t have the capacity to manage them effectively. Then it impacts on the life population … it was just assumed that we dealt with what was given to us, but the practical application of it was not realised and then it got worse and worse and worse (Prison manager)

''You've got some OLRs that have the tiniest punishment part, you're talking months, up to a few years. So, by the time they access any kind of intervention they are already post tariff...” (Forensic psychologist) #NOLR #JustcieReform

'A lot of what the OLR was about was the preparation of the risk assessment. Nobody needs an assessment, they need the outcome of the assessment to be delivered, too often the assessment becomes an end in itself' (Former member, Parole Board for Scotland) #ScotJustice #NOLR

Harrowing #NOLR

One prisoner said,“I have to accept I’m never gonnae get out of jail, I’m gonnae die in here”. He got an 18-month sentence and was slapped with an OLR and he’s thinking, “I could die in this place”. (Prison Chaplain) #NOLR #CriminalJusticeReform

'He's not motivated to progress with anything. He is too reluctant three years in to have any type of relationship, form peers or get a job because he's like, what's the point? I’ve got an OLR' (Community Justice Social Worker) #NOLR #CommunityJustice

Today we are drawing on Nicola Ceesay’s forthcoming PhD thesis to highlight the perspectives of practitioners. #NOLR

‘I’ has offered her nephew a home and a family if he was ever to be released. She acknowledges he would be one of the lucky ones. She supports the NOLR Campaign, ‘for ‘J’ and all other young men whom have been handed this inhumane, barbaric sentence’ #NOLR

'J’ spent his life in care, being physically, sexually and mentally abused. ‘I’ states ‘he was always going to be safer being kept away from his mother and her family’. She respects how he has 'spent those long years in prison reading, learning and bettering himself'. #NOLR

‘I love ‘J’ dearly and am devastated at how he has been treated by the system, which is supposedly in place to protect vulnerable children and young adults but has badly failed him and traumatized him even further by their handling of his case’ #NOLR

She is proud of how he has dealt with adversity and acknowledges his faults. ‘We have discussed his situation several times and ‘J’ has been very honest and open about what he has done, hasn't done and what he hopes for his future’ #NOLR

‘I’ worries for her nephew ‘J’ who was 21 when he got an OLR. His punishment tariff was 2 ½ years and he remains in prison after 14 years. Through her own career ‘I’ is aware of research showing that young males' brains are not fully developed into maturity until the age of 25 #NOLR

‘L’ sees his family isolated from others and says it’s is ‘mentally torturing as you have very little to no hope and are constantly facing parole hearings and continuously telling your family outside to have hope but in reality you have no hope yourself of ever getting out’.

His Mum is frustrated by the management of OLR’s. She sees her son’s struggle as those with ‘liberation dates’ take priority. ‘Many SPS staff don’t even seem to understand the OLR. They don’t understand what it’s like to have absolutely no hope at the end of the tunnel’. #NOLR

His Mum feels the professionals involved with her son did not fully realise the consequences of the OLR. One social worker informed ‘L’ that she ‘didn’t expect him to spend that long in prison and was only there to get the help they felt he needed’ #NOLR