That Starmer “letter to my son” video is just so bad. Who on earth thought it was a good idea? The Downing Street Comms operation appears to be in full sabotage mode

I spoke to BBC Verify the other day about the silly suggestion by Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, that prisons could check prisoners’ cells to work out if they have been accidentally released

There are a number of good, hard-working Police and Crime Commissioners I’ve also never been a fan of the Police and Crime Commissioner model So this is a welcome development, though let’s see the detail of what is to follow www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Yesterday the Prime Minister said the Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of sex in the Equality Act “must be implemented in full and at all levels” This was in response to a question from Rebecca Paul MP on why male prisoners were still being held in Downview women’s prison

The Sentencing Bill is due for Second Reading in the House of Lords tomorrow (12 Nov) Second Reading is the first opportunity for the Lords to discuss the purpose and principles behind the Bill The House of Lords Library has produced this briefing: lordslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

What we tolerate becomes the norm A thread on #systemschange and our responsibilities to make it happen 🧵🧵🧵

Article in this morning’s Independent on what next for the Prison Service after the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu I told the paper that individuals should be held accountable for mistakes, but the underlying context is a prison system in crisis

Until a few years ago, no serious person would have claimed that it was just too hard to provide separate toilet and changing facilities for men and women, or to prevent men from competing in women’s sport or being held in women’s prisons Yet here we are www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Pretty damning report out today from @nao.org.uk today on the terrible state probation is in @russellwebster.com has done a write-up www.russellwebster.com/probation-we...

What are the laws around public protest and what powers do the police have manage, control and restrict them? @houseofcommons.parliament.uk Library has produced this useful briefing commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

The Sentencing Bill reaches Committee Stage in the House of Commons tomorrow Committee Stage is when MPs do detailed line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill @houseofcommons.parliament.uk Library has produced a briefing on what’s in the Bill commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

“It is... our strong preference, having been advised at expert level about its scope and accuracy, that the updated draft Code be brought into force as soon as possible to reflect the law as it has now been clarified by the Supreme Court...

A couple recent briefings out from @houseofcommons.parliament.uk and @houseoflords.parliament.uk libraries that caught my eye

🎯

“This is bonkers... The Sentencing Council has done good work in providing consistency even if it may not be perfect. The [Jenrick] proposal is the cheapest form of politics as he must know it is unimplementable” www.theguardian.com/law/2025/oct...

Let’s not make the racism and misogyny uncovered by the BBC a case of a few ‘rotten apples’ in one police station in central London There is a more general, and persistent, problem in policing There are also many good police officers who will be horrified by the revelations

“Both politics and personal feelings don’t impinge scientific truths and that needs to be clearly understood” www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09...

💥 #FiLiA2025 speaker news 💥 @jophoenix1.bsky.social Professor of Criminology, author & academic, who has researched sex, gender & justice for more than three decades. Former Trustee of @crimeandjustice.bsky.social 🎟️ filia.org.uk/tickets #SexNotGender #Brighton #Sisterhood #Solidarity

Important to keep the pressure up on the government on the scandalous #IPP sentence Well done IPP Committee in Action www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crim...

“He goes through cycles where he feels just utter despair and it's very hard for us to know how to comfort him, because it is a hopeless situation “How do you keep somebody hopeful when there is no hope?” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A further update to the MoJ ministerial line up with Jake Richards & Baroness Levitt added as well as new Lord Chancellor/Justice Sec David Lammy www.russellwebster.com/the-new-just...

We’re currently recruiting for a policy and communications officer Great job for the right candidate On the downside, you’ll be working with me quite a bit of the time www.charityjob.co.uk/jobs/centre-...

I’ll be giving oral evidence to the ‪@houseoflords.parliament.uk‬ Justice and Home Affairs Committee tomorrow at 11.15 am on criminal justice electronic monitoring/tagging Watch it here, if that’s what floats your boat www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/...

Smart, self-critical and less patronising Is it time for a rethink on the way criminal justice reformers do criminal justice reform? My latest commentary on what’s what www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/smart-self-c...

“I am not soft on terrorism. But I am a strong believer that you have to know what it looks like” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

“The approach in the Ministry of Justice, which oversees prisons policy, was to manage the crisis, doing ‘as little as possible as late as possible’.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

”Requiring prison officers to refer to male offenders as women shows how far an organisation whose core business is managing risk related to sex has lost sight of material reality” www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

“We are keen to continue working proactively and keep abreast of any new developments that can assist in our mission to investigate miscarriages of justice” ccrc.gov.uk/news/ccrc-la...

“One woman has said she was raped from the age of 12 by a serving officer in a marked police car and that he threatened to give her back to the grooming gang if she did not comply” www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

“Many of the men who claimed to be protesting about the savage murders of three little girls at a dance class in Southport had themselves been accused of attacking women... The link between private and public violence has never been clearer” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Colour me shocked www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Latest crime statistics for England and Wales are released today by the Office for National Statistics I'll be discussing them at 9.45 am this morning on Times Radio www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

Smaller, but tougher Our new report, out today, reveals that fewer young adults are being sent to prison than a decade ago, but those who are imprisoned are getting much longer sentences #SmallerButTougher

“The situation at Pentonville reflects many of the issues our members are experiencing across the country. Overcrowding, understaffing, a squalid prison estate and poor leadership are indicative of a prison system in crisis” www.poauk.org.uk/news-events/...

Interesting new research out in the British Journal of Criminology Homicides in El Salvador rose when tough on crime policies were pursued, and fell when policies based on truces and negotiation with and between gangs were followed academic.oup.com/bjc/advance-...

We have now published all the commended essays (and the winner) of the inaugural Mike Guilfoyle Essay Prize. The annual competition, run with @napotheunion.bsky.social , honours Mike’s memory by encouraging reflections on all that is valuable and important in probation.

“I recently met a young man in a Midlands prison who... has spent more than half his life in prison... He was released a couple of years ago, only to be recalled to custody... for being late to probation appointments, which clashed with his employment” www.independent.co.uk/voices/lord-...

I was at the House of Lords with others to witness the debate first-hand Powerful advocacy for reform, matched by ministerial obtuseness In short, two hours of pushing jelly up a hill So we continue www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crim...

Approach with caution: Does the UK have anything to learn from Texas? A rare opportunity to hear from Michele Deitch, one of the foremost US experts on prisons and sentencing policy. @crimeandjustice.bsky.social event 21 July lunchtime www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/approach-cau...

“In 2003, five protesters known as the the Fairford Five were arrested and charged for disrupting military operations at RAF Fairford. One of the defendants, Josh Richards, was represented by Keir Starmer” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Recent speech to the UN General Assembly by the Director General of the UN Office on Drugs & Crime, Ghada Waly: “If we measure our societies today, we find them struggling with a silent yet growing prison crisis... This is not sustainable. It is not safe. And it is not humane”

“Thomas has been a casualty in this, but so have I and my mum and family... He deserves to be treated with dignity, and I am just overwhelmed that he will go to a safe environment where he’s not being hurt” www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crim...

This new briefing from the House of Commons library on ‘How to appeal a criminal conviction or sentence’ commonslibrary.parliament.uk/how-to-appea...

Spot on by POA chair, Mark Fairhurst, on the waste of spending billions on new prisons “You could do a lot with that… the estate could be totally modernised, we could fund secure mental health beds in our communities to get people out of prison, we could reform probation and fund them”

‘Prison was the first place we felt sisterhood’: six women return to the ruins of Holloway In an astonishing new documentary, former inmates go back to the cells that once held them. The result is a powerful indictment of our justice system www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ju...

Appointing the redoubtable @verabaird.bsky.social to chair the troubled Criminal Cases Review Commission, if only on an interim basis, strikes me as a very good move www.gov.uk/government/n...

New probation and reoffending directorate being set up at the Ministry of Justice www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/...

My latest commentary on our current crop of politicians Burdened by the past and fearful of the future, they are stuck in a doom loop www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/building-bet...

Join us for our next event, Echoes of tomorrow, on 24 June We’ll be discussing how on present-day criminal justice policy-making is haunted by past decisions and anticipations of what the future might hold

Any Sentencing Review must surely be just a first step in the long promised fundamental appraisal of our entire neglected desperately underfunded Justice system.