The government must take a fresh look at policy if over-representation of people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities in the criminal justice system is to be addressed, according to a new study published today. Less Equal Than Others: Ethnic Minorities and the Criminal Justice System, carried out by Race for Justice, a new coalition of voluntary organisations working with BME offenders...

Britain's coalition government announced wide-ranging political reforms Monday (5 July), starting with a referendum on the voting system that will test the cohesion of the governing Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, but also put an end to a practice which has favoured the UK's two major parties.

THE Cadder judgment represented a seismic shift for everyone involved in the criminal justice system, and resulted in emergency legislation giving suspects the right to seek l

Monbiot on changing the electoral system: Most encouragingly, some of the big environment groups – Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the New Economics Foundation – have joined the coalition, knowing that much of what they hope to achieve is impossible under the corrupt old system. Electoral reform so that nef gets to run the

Politics is a rough business no matter where it is practiced; and we in the UK have far to many holes in the voting system to cast aspirations about how other nations go about it. Not least because are own system has been fine tuned over centuries to benefit a privileged elite. Our politician's often pontificate to all who are foolish enough to listen that the UK’s political system is t...

Wrong system So the ultimate Man of System blames The System. According to Gordo, The System governing MPs' pay and rations is a failed system. It is A System that has failed to prevent MPs systematically fleecing us for their own personal profit. So his solution is - yes - A New System. And the key element of his new system is that MPs' pay and rations will henceforth be determined and ...

Jack Straw today says that the government needs to "get tough" with criminals. Find me a Home Secretary who hasn't talked tough on crime over the past twenty years. But it's always precisely that. Just talk. The criminal justice system...

When I first heard that Norfolk Police were introducing “sentencing circles” as a way of processing young people through the criminal justice system, my first thought was, surely things can’t be that bad. Peter Merry, head of criminal justice for the force, said, “We have been looking at a system which is based on the traditions of aboriginal tribes, but in a more modern context has been w...

The Commission on English Prisons Today- presided over by Cherie Booth QC- launched its final report yesterday - with a demand to cut prison numbers and reinvest money in communities. It is unequivocal. Our criminal justice system is in crisis. A decade and a half of penal excess means that we lock up too

I HAVE always had a passion for our criminal justice system and believe that we have a system that, by and large, stands up with the best of them.