Courts will reportedly sit for 24-hours a day in the wake of far-right violence sweeping across the country. Ministers met with senior members of the judiciary for emergency talks on Saturday as the far-right clashed with police and counter-protesters in major UK cities and towns. Violence broke out between groups in places such as Sunderland, […]
With the maximum capacity for prisoners in England and Wales standing at just over 87,000, the available places is reported to be in the low hundreds. The system is at crisis point, and has been for some time now, and with no apparent solution to remedy this crisis The new Labour government has pledged to
Prisoners to Serve Less Time in Custody on Their Sentences? Read More »
The latest published review of criminal defence firms has been released, and it provides for depressing reading No publicly funded service has had to endure the cuts inflicted from successive governments provided by the Conservative and Labour parties. Since 1999, legal aid for criminal cases has been slashed by an enormous 50%. The crisis within
Mortal Crisis in Criminal Defence Solicitors Firms Read More »
Nearly four in five prisons do not have enough officers trained to deal with riots as part of so-called “Tornado” squads, despite rising violence and disorder behind bars, The Independent can reveal. With the prisons crisis a major concern ahead of the general election, prison officers responded to the revelations by accusing Rishi Sunak’s government
Scandalous’ Riot Prison officer shortage Read More »
The Lord Chancellor is triggering an emergency measure, Operation Early Dawn, to deal with the worsening problem of the prison population. Details are somewhat lacking but it appears to be an extension of early release and other measures, but there is a particular measure affecting Magistrates\’ courts in England (but not Wales at the moment).
Prison System at Breaking Point Read More »
The significant increase in reported cases of Cuckooing, has not gone unnoticed to the Home Secretary Mr James Cleverly. Cuckooing, is when a criminal gang takes over a vulnerable persons home to commit specific crimes. In a recent statement released by the Home Secretary, Mr Cleverly highlighted the link between those Cuckooing gangs and County
Home Secretary to Crack Down on ‘Cuckooing’ Crime Read More »
At least 56 miscarriages of justice have occurred in cases in England and Wales where the jury was split, according to a charity, which says jury unanimity should be reintroduced to safeguard against wrongful criminal convictions. The research by Appeal, the miscarriage of justice charity, says majority verdicts “arguably dilute the principle of reasonable doubt” and have
On reading the new version of Judiciary’s Better Case Management hand book, it appears that all bail applications will no longer be made with a defendant being brought to court. The section of the new handbook relating to bail applications reads that remote hearings will be the default position for bail applications in a bid
Applications for Bail Now to be Made Remotely Read More »
New research reveals that murderers are now getting ‘substantially increased’ minimum prison sentences fuelling a trend of sentence inflation across other serious crimes, such as manslaughter and sexual offences. According to the report by the Sentencing Academy written by Dr Richard Martin of LSE, average minimum terms for murder have soared from 13 years in 2000 to
60% increase in murder sentences over last two decades fuelling ‘sentence inflation’ Read More »
This week the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) announced it will re-examine almost 5,500 previously rejected cases to see if DNA breakthroughs can be made. This represents a significant step forward for those of us who know that the statutory miscarriage of justice review body has denied justice to scores of wrongly convicted individuals, of which Andrew
