Global Prisoners’ Families

Pepper spray use at young offender institutions in England ruled legal Howard League charity fails in battle to halt government’s decision to make Pava available to prison staff

This is a terrible decision: www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

"From the start, ICE has been a racial project, with its armed operatives targeting Black and brown people. Its categorical mission and lack of oversight are reminiscent of slave patrols tasked with hunting down fugitives. "In the wake of Good’s killing, politicians have claimed that ICE needs better training. The problem, as they see it, is the ramp-up of ICE under Trump, with a $75bn increase in funding. But Jonathan Ross has been with ICE for a decade. Ross wasn’t one of the subpar new recruits who can’t run a mile and a half; according to testimony he gave in December, obtained by Wired, he was a firearms trainer, team leader, and elite member of its special response unit – a Swat team. "Seen from this vantage, Good’s killing is not a “mistake” but a reflection of how the agency is designed to operate. Take it from the border czar, Tom Homan, who said: “There will be more bloodshed unless we decrease the hateful rhetoric.” In other words, Homan, who received an award for his service under Obama, after introducing the idea of family separation, is telling citizens that exercising their constitutional right to speech will prompt government agents to gun them down."

new by @hebagowayed.bsky.social and @victorerikray.bsky.social in @theguardian.com:
"Abolishing an agency that teargasses two-year-olds and shoots mothers in the street isn’t radical. It is basic human decency."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Come and do a fully-funded 4-year PhD with me in Glasgow (and @thesccjr.bsky.social ) and Thomas Ugelvik as part of the Rehabilitation and Reintegration in Europe project. 😊. www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/soc....

Tomorrow is the deadline for abstracts for 'Punishment in the Global Peripheries’ co-hosted with the Centre for Criminology @uctlaw.bsky.social, @oxfordcrim.bsky.social, National University of Litoral & University of A Coruña.

Apply & come and join us in Cape Town in December this year.

A moving letter from a criminal defence solicitor representing a young mother of an infant, who explains the human cost of losing the new sentencing guideline.

“The justice secretary’s political point-scoring has devastating consequences”

@hodgejonesallen.bsky.social

Headshot image of Shona Minson

Research Associate Shona Minson Explores Maternal Sentencing in BBC Radio 3 Essay for New Generation Thinkers www.law.ox.ac.uk/content/news...

Infographic with text: Guide to new low rates and consumer protections for incarcerated people's communications services

Starting TODAY, most jails & prisons must comply with the @FCC's new phone justice rules! This is a massive victory for incarcerated people & their loved ones.

Learn more from @uccmediajustice.org & @georgetownlaw.bsky.social helpful guide 👇
buff.ly/SjnPjF1

Labour's populist pantomime over sentencing rules plays into the hands of the right | Janey Starling Forcing the abandonment of new commonsense, evidence-based guidelines is a new low for a party that once prided itself on justice reform, says Janey Starling of campaign group Level Up

All pregnancies in prison are high risk, with higher rates of stillbirth & prematurity. Sentencing decisions = difference between life and death. @birthcompanions.bsky.social @cleanbrk.bsky.social @verabaird.bsky.social @shonaminson.bsky.social @janeystarling.bsky.social @rcm.org.uk

Our Director Naomi Delap responds to Imposition Guideline delay:

"We are disappointed that the Sentencing Council has has had to delay this coming into force. This updated guideline included specific and extensive direction on sentencing pregnant women and mothers of very young children...🧵

It was great to join Level Up and @cleanbrk.bsky.social this morning at the annual No Births Behind Bars protest outside the MoJ!

We are closer than ever before to putting an end to imprisoning pregnant women, whether sentenced or remanded - it's in the guidelines, now let's make it a statute. ✊

Can the UK fix its broken prison system? – video The prison population in England and Wales has doubled in the last 30 years, with overcrowding now endemic across the system. But the government's strategy of easing this pressure by granting early re...

Impactful piece about life after prison comparing UK and Netherlands from @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/society/vide...

1 in 4 women convicted of failure to protect in Oklahoma receive a longer sentence than the man responsible for the child abuse.

When DV survivors report suspected child abuse, they can face a lifetime sentence. A bill that would have changed that never got a hearing.

Exciting to see our paper on international women's problem solving courts in the Prison Service Journal. Co-authored this with @rutharmstrong.bsky.social and two @oxfordcrim.bsky.social graduate researchers @arkluge.bsky.social and @iuliavatau.bsky.social👏 www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/prison-servi...

Feminism, Antifeminism, and the Mobilization of Regret Guest edited by Laura Green (Northeastern University) and Chris Bobel (University of Massachusetts Boston) Feminism is forward-looking and world-building. Feminists everywhere can call to mind the manifestos, mobilizations, solidarities, creative inspirations, legal propositions, and revolutionary paradigms that inspire us to action and move us toward more just futures. At the same time, we may also be haunted by obstacles encountered, losses experienced, and regrets felt along the way. With over fifty years of feminist history behind the journal—and, we hope, another fifty years of feminist troublemaking ahead—Signs seeks essays that delineate both how feminists may experience, theorize, and productively apply the concept of regret and how it may, alternatively, thwart the development of feminist futures. We seek essays that make theoretical, analytical, and/or activist interventions. We welcome papers that engage the complex dynamics and larger contexts of regret, from the personal, emotional, and creative realms to the social, political, and empirical; or that consider how regret converges with or departs from related affective terrains of shame, guilt, grief, or nostalgia. As always, Signs encourages transdisciplinary and transnational essays that address substantive feminist questions, debates, and forms of literary, artistic, and cultural representation and that minimize disciplinary or academic jargon. Scan the QR code or visit www.signsjournal.org/cfps for the full call for papers and submission instructions.

Submissions for our upcoming special issue "Feminism, Antifeminism, and the Mobilization of Regret," are due May 1, 2025! Check out the full call at signsjournal.org/for-authors/...

An incredibly important and insightful report, highlighting research by @rachelcondry.bsky.social and Prof Caroline Miles. For more information on the Femicide Census, visit: www.femicidecensus.org

Behind the Scenes from Lost Mothers with Anna Herrmann and Neetu Singh YouTube video by CleanBrk

"I just hope that people start to understand and realise what the experience of women, of mothers is in prison"

Director Anna Herrmann and Assistant Director Neetu Singh talk about the process of creating Scenes from Lost Mothers.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0oV...

‘He knows how to make sure that there is no evidence’: when your domestic violence abuser is a police officer One person said: ‘I had to report at the police station where he works, where everybody knows everybody’.

Where do you seek help when your abuser is a police officer?

Our latest Conversation article examines the experiences of 17 victim-survivors of domestic violence perpetrated by a partner who is or was a police officer.

👉🏼 Read our article here: theconversation.com/he-knows-how...

Today Birth Companions launches our latest campaign, calling for an ambitious new approach to pregnancy, birth and early motherhood across the whole criminal justice system. Find out more: www.birthcompanions.org.uk/articles/cam...

Families of people in prison: towards a sociological understanding of stigma Families of people in prison: towards a sociological understanding of stigma Editor: Anna Kotova Context: Stigma is a well-documented phenomenon within research on families of people in prison. ...

Criminology people with interest in experiences of families of people in prison!

I am keen to finally get this idea moving: an edited collection of chapters on stigma. Quite a lot to explore and lots of policy interest. Get in touch and pls share!

docs.google.com/document/u/1...

Graph titled: The harms of mass incarceration span generations

If you want to understand who incarceration helps and who it hurts, look at how many people in state prisons today grew up with an incarcerated parent.

https://buff.ly/41tfIK9

Politicians are guilty of turning our prisons into pressure cookers As an interim report by former justice secretary David Gauke lays bare how a move to long sentencing has contributed to a prison system in crisis, what has become of the political class that got hooked on being ‘tough on crime’, asks Andrea Coomber KC

"Politicians are guilty of turning our prisons into pressure cookers".

Our Chief Executive, Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.), wrote an opinion piece for the @Independent on the impact of the political classes getting hooked on being 'tough on crime'.
www.independent.co.u...

Picture of Professor Liz Kelly & Professor Vicky Canning

What a pleasure to have the amazing @proflizkelly.bsky.social speak at Lancaster Uni on Friday on 'Revisiting Surviving Sexual Violence'. Inspirational talk & so much to think about! Organised by our own @vcanning.bsky.social for new Harm, Crime & Criminalisation centre @lulawcrim.bsky.social

The tragedy of our universities in deep recession is that, for all the caveats, they produce exactly that connectivity, that sense of place, that attachment and even love that everyone is saying they want. You'll miss it all once it's gone.

🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 pod.fo/e/2a9740

Prison is meant to punish wrongdoing. But it's not just the person on the inside who's punished, it's their family too...

In this episode, we're joined by Josie Cole and Dr Lorna Brookes to discuss imprisonment, children, and families.

🎧Listen now! pod.fo/e/2a9740

Moving interview with a mother who gave birth in prison & subsequently experienced 5 weeks' separation from her new baby & with @midwifeteacher.bsky.social on @lostmothers.bsky.social Pregnant women shouldn't be imprisoned. Laura says we need immediate change
From 22:13 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

We are looking to appoint a Departmental Lecturer in Criminology for a three-year post covering Professor Ian Loader’s leave. The role includes teaching, research, and supporting the Centre’s work.

Find out more about the new role and apply today: shorturl.at/dN7Jn

1st book on pregnancy and motherhood in prison in the UK (unbelievably!) by the brilliant Lucy Baldwin & me, published by Bristol University Press policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/pregnancy-an...

Women’s Justice Board The Women’s Justice Board has the clear goal of reducing the number of women in prison and addressing the distinct needs of women in the criminal justice system.

One for colleagues in England & Wales:

The Women's Justice Board meet for first time today.

They are seeking Expressions of Interest to appoint 7 specialists to Women’s Justice Partnership Delivery Group. Examples: Chief Execs, indep. experts, women with lived experience
www.gov.uk/government/g...

Like EastEnders' Sonia, I was in prison while pregnant - it was dehumanising 'Prison is no place for pregnant women'

“The isolation from your loved ones is one of the hardest parts of prison”

A woman in our campaign has written a powerful piece in the Metro on her experiences of pregnancy in prison, and how accurate the EastEnders storyline is

metro.co.uk/2025/01/22/l...