Is there institutional racism in the criminal justice system? The MacPherson report on Stephen Lawrence defined institutional racism as ‘the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people...

Disclosure rule change: are we finally stopping the erosion of the burden of proof? Are we on the brink of a forced culture change in the courts and among prosecutors? This may be so following the announced proposed change to the Criminal...

A conspiracy cooked up by ‘activist left-wing human rights’ lawyers? Government and media have denied, dismissed and derided allegations of abuse by British soldiers in Iraq. Over seven days we’ll interrogate a very British scandal. Day 1: Attack...

Collateral damage: protecting the children who witness police raids Kevin was just eight years old when his older brother was arrested for murder: ‘The way they knock on the door is terrifying. I can’t remember how many police there were. I...

Chipping away at the bedroom tax: disabled families win at the Supreme Court The Supreme Court last week ruled that the ‘bedroom tax unlawfully discriminates against disabled children who need overnight care and disabled adults who cannot...

Total Recall: Why More Women Are Being Returned to Prison than Ever Before When the Transforming Rehabilitation ‘revolution’ was launched in 2014 the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) stated that it was ‘committed to addressing the factors...

Stateless, unreturnable and detained in the UK Peter is in his late fifties. He came to the UK about 20 years ago from Nigeria and made several attempts to obtain legal status, all of which failed. Without this, he was not allowed to work and was...

PAS lecture: Whole life prisoners and ‘the right to hope’ ‘We’re talking about prisoners whose crimes are regarded as so exceptionally serious that they have been told that they must die in prison,’ said Ed Fitzgerald QC last week...

The Investigatory Powers Bill: Mass Surveillance in the UK A year after it was first proposed, and with the government mired in a Brexit fuelled crisis, the UK’s new mass surveillance regime last week passed its third reading in the House of...

Hogan-Howe finally apologies for disastrous Operation Midland The retired judge heading up the review of the failed investigation into the VIP paedophile ring has warned that a police policy of ‘believing victims’ has lead to miscarriages of...

‘No one should be surprised. The seeds of the prison crisis were sown long ago’ The full details may never come out, but we know at least that, on the morning of Monday 7 November, two men were found to have escaped from Pentonville...

Policing anti-fracking demos is having a ‘chilling effect’ on our freedom to protest Here is one story that typifies police attitudes towards anti-fracking protesters – one that the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol), a coalition...