"What needs to change for probation to be more effective?"
That's the question @napotheunion.bsky.social & @crimeandjustice.bsky.social are asking in the 2nd annual Mike Guilfoyle Essay Prize.
Think you know?
Submit your Essay. Closing date 31 Mar 👉
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
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
Our Co-Director Professor @adamcrawford.bsky.social led a roundtable discussion on the importance of listening to the voices of people with lived experience at @crimeandjustice.bsky.social's event on diversion last week.
Read more 👇
vulnerabilitypolicing.org.uk/news/centre-...
📣 Read CJA Trustee Dr Thomas McNeil's latest working paper, written for @crimeandjustice.bsky.social
The paper reflects on the key challenges to organisational change and cultural reform in policing, analysing community rehabilitation initiatives.
www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/diversion-we...
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-...
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...
New report out today: Understanding Dual Contact for Women
In this @crimeandjustice.bsky.social Working Paper, our Head of Policy Kirsty Kitchen discusses the significant, but largely neglected, overlap between the criminal justice system and children’s social care.
bit.ly/3Ul7kb8
The criminalisation of young adults
Liat Tuv of CCJS examines how the CJS is processing young adults and reveals that young women are being inappropriately detained, while Black defendants are facing tougher penalties than White defendants.
www.russellwebster.com/the-criminal...
Find out more about our new report on the criminalisation of young adults – Smaller, but tougher – here
#SmallerButTougher
www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/new-report-c...
However, unreliable ethnicity data makes it harder to work out the trends for the smaller, marginalised groups within the criminal justice system
This is particularly the case for young Black women, whose experiences and outcomes are not captured in the general trends
Young women are more likely to held in pre-trial detention for offences that do not ultimately lead to a prison sentence than young men
Meanwhile, White young adults appear to be getting more lenient sentences than their Black counterparts
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
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 received many insightful and thought-provoking essays, thank you to everyone who took the time to take part. Thank you also to the judges: Ben Cockburn (NAPO National Chair), Ruth Bloomfield (MOPAC), Paul Weatherstone (Probation Service) and Jake Phillips (University of Cambridge).
The other commended essay, by Ben Entwistle, looks at the concept of professional identity in probation.
www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/strong-passi...
One of the commended essays, by Christine Munn, takes the quest for the meaning of professionalism into the past as well as the present.
www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/quest-what-%...
In the highly commended essay, Jamal Hylton explores the view of professionalism from the frontline.
www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/concept-prof...
This year’s essay question was: What does professionalism mean in probation? In the winning essay, Anne Burrell reflects on the meanings of professionalism in probation practice over time.
www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/reflections-...
Mike was a dedicated probation officer and active Napo member. He often contributed thoughtful pieces on probation for our website, you can find all of these here: www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/author/mike-...
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.
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...
What's the best way to prepare for #BSC2025?
We recommend reading BJC’s new virtual issue, which explores how #criminology can advance social justice — expertly curated by @francispakes.bsky.social and @drlisasugiura.bsky.social.
:et us know your thoughts 💭
🔗 https://oxford.ly/3HYHarS
‘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...
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...
The event will be held online, with a select number of places available for in-person attendance
More information and to book you place
www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/echoes-tomor...
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.
A couple of quick thoughts on the Sentencing Review, due out today
Successive governments and parliaments have been persistent offenders: driving up sentence lengths, pitching the prison system into recurring crises, then casting around for fixes for the mess they have created
