Dame Vera Baird is a British barrister and politician who has held roles as a government minister,police and crime commissioner,and Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales.
Dawn Primarolo,Baroness Primarolo,is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Bristol South from 1987 until 2015,when she stood down. She was Minister of State for Children,Young People and Families at the Department for Children,Schools and Families from June 2009 to May 2010 and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons from 2010 to 2015. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for political service. She was nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours.
Christopher Stephen "Failing" Grayling is a British politician and author who served as Secretary of State for Justice from 2012 to 2015,Leader of the House of Commons from 2015 to 2016 and Secretary of State for Transport from 2016 until 2019. A member of the Conservative Party,he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Epsom and Ewell since 2001. Grayling previously worked in the television and film industry.
His Majesty's Prison Service (HMPS) is a part of HM Prison and Probation Service,which is the part of His Majesty's Government charged with managing most of the prisons within England and Wales.
The Probation Service for England and Wales is a statutory criminal justice service,mainly responsible for the supervision of offenders in the community and the provision of reports to the criminal courts to assist them in their sentencing duties. It was established in its current form by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act in April 2001,but has existed since 1907 as a set of area-based services interacting at arm's length with central government.
Nazir Ahmed,Baron Ahmed is a former Labour politician and convicted sex offender of Pakistani origin. He was appointed a life peer in 1998 by the Labour Government.
HMP Bronzefield is an adult and young offender female prison located on the outskirts of Ashford in Surrey,England. Bronzefield is the only purpose-built private prison solely for women in the UK,and is the largest female prison in Europe. The prison is operated by Sodexo Justice Services.
Peter Brereton Townsend was a British sociologist. The last position he held was Professor of International Social Policy at the London School of Economics. He was also Emeritus Professor of Social Policy in the University of Bristol,and was one of the co-founders of the University of Essex. He wrote widely on the economics of poverty and was co-founder of the Child Poverty Action Group. The Peter Townsend Policy Press Prize was established by the British Academy in his memory.
The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) was founded in 1981 in London,England,by a small group of prison reform campaigners who were unhappy with the direction in which the Howard League for Penal Reform was heading,concentrating more on community punishments than on traditional prison reform issues. Founding members included Sir Monty Finniston and Veronica Linklater.
Penal Reform International,founded in London in 1989,is an international nongovernmental organization working on penal and criminal justice reform worldwide.
A presentence investigation report (PSIR) is a legal document that presents the findings of an investigation into the "legal and social background" of a person convicted of a crime before sentencing to determine if there are extenuating circumstances which should influence the severity or leniency of a criminal sentence. The PSIR is a "critical" document prepared by a probation officer via a system of point allocation,so that it may serve as a charging document and exhibit for proving criminal conduct. The PSIR system is widely implemented today.
Sentencing disparity is defined as "a form of unequal treatment in criminal punishment that is often of unexplained cause and is at least incongruous,unfair and disadvantaging in consequence". In the United States men are most adversely affected by sentencing disparity being twice as likely to be sentenced to jail after conviction than women and receiving on average 63% longer jail sentences.
The representation of women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom has been an issue in the politics of the United Kingdom at numerous points in the 20th and 21st centuries. Originally debate centred on whether women should be allowed to vote and stand for election as Members of Parliament. The Parliament Act 1918 gave women over 21 the right to stand for election as a Member of Parliament. The United Kingdom has had three female Prime Ministers:Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990),Theresa May (2016–2019),and Liz Truss (2022). The publication of the book Women in the House by Elizabeth Vallance in 1979 highlighted the under-representation of women in Parliament. In more modern times concerns about the under-representation of women led the Labour Party to introduce and,decades later,abandon all-women short lists,something which was later held to breach discrimination laws.
Louise Casey,Baroness Casey of Blackstock,,is a British government official working in social welfare.
The Legal Aid,Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) is a statute of the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted by the coalition government of 2010-2015,creating reforms to the justice system. The bill for the act was introduced in the House of Commons on 21 June 2011,and received Royal Assent on 1 May 2012.
Agenda is a UK-based charity which campaigns for women and girls at risk. The charity aims to highlight the needs of what it considers to be the most excluded women and girls:those who have experienced extensive violence,abuse,Psychological trauma,and economic inequality,including problems such as homelessness,incarceration,addiction,serious mental health issues,engagement in prostitution,and other forms of disadvantage. The organisation has 53 members,a mix of charities working with women across the various issues Agenda seeks to address.
Inquest Charitable Trust is a charity concerned with state related deaths in England and Wales. It was founded in 1981. Inquest provides support on state-related deaths,including deaths in custody and their investigation,to bereaved people,lawyers,advice and support agencies,the media and parliamentarians.
Jenny Susan Margaret Roberts OBE (1940-2010) was Chief Probation Officer for Hereford and Worcester and a writer on probation. She introduced new concepts on how women offenders were treated in the UK justice system which went on to influence women's probation services in Australia,the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. She was the first woman to chair the Association of Chief Officers of Probation (ACOP) in 1992.
