crime and justice Articles

Criminal justice suffers from a lack of public confidence. It is easy to see why. The legal system can appear an unwelcome place where the victim – and not the offender – is truly on trial. Many victims unsurprisingly report dissatisfaction with their treatment....

Prisonomics is a timely contribution to debates about the cost-effectiveness and proportionality of women’s imprisonment for relatively minor, non-violent offending. It contains lots of facts and figures (including from the Prison Reform Trust’s Bromley Briefings),...

Everyone knows the war on drugs has failed. So why doesn't the public want change? Yet another call has been made for an end to the so-called ‘war on drugs’, this time from former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan. Like so many politicians who recognise the...

On his appointment as justice secretary, aware of the need to make cuts, Chris Grayling made clear that he saw a stark choice between reducing the number of people in prison and reducing the costs of each prison place. He, of course, chose the latter - an approach...