‘A basic rule of government is never look into anything you don’t have to, and never set up an inquiry unless you know in advance what its findings will be.’ This was the advice of permanent secretary Sir Humphrey Applebey in the 1980s satirical political sitcom Yes Minister, in response to the Prime Minister explaining ..read more

The miscarriage of justice watchdog is considering reopening the cases of almost 5,500 people convicted of murder or rape whose applications the group had previously turned down. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is currently the subject of two separate reviews following the furore over of the quashing of the conviction of Andrew Malkinson and ..read more

A new issue of the Justice Gap magazine PROOF is out on Monday shining a light on our broken criminal appeals system. PROOF issue 6 features a series of long read articles on a number of shocking and unresolved cases including the Birmingham Four, the Manchester 10, Oliver Campbell and Jason Moore. The issue features ..read more

Six months after the Brook House inquiry was concluded, the government has dismissed its crucial recommendation of setting a time limit on detaining immigrants The inquiry was intended to prevent the recurrence of the inhumane treatment suffered by migrants at the scandal-hit Brook House immigration centre. This inquiry, in which the Home Office was the ..read more

Six prisoners have died at one Welsh prison in the last 22 days. Two deaths were reported at HMP Parc in Bridgend on 27 February and since then four more men have died. The prison’s watchdog has launched a probe into all six deaths. Neither G4S, the private contractor responsible for the prison, nor the ..read more

Black prisoners in Wormwood Scrubs are subject to disproportionate use of force, an annual report has revealed. The IMB report found that black prisoners were subjected to 43% of use-of-force incidents despite only making up 27% of the number of prisoners in Wormwood scrubs. In contrast, white and asian prisoners were subjected to 25% and ..read more

Nicholas Bidar, a prisoner serving an indefinite IPP sentence (imprisonment for public protection) has made a public bid for parole. In his plea for parole, Bidar told the parole board ‘I’m not that person’ anymore, and ‘Every day feels like torture. I struggle daily to get through the day.’ IPP sentences, which were abolished 2012 ..read more

A recent investigation by the Observer has revealed  widespread use of disputed medical terms, ‘Acute Behavioural Disturbance’ (ABD) and ‘Excited Delirium,’ in explaining deaths following police restraint incidents in the UK. Further concerns have been raised about the disproportionate application of these terms to black individuals, exacerbating existing inequalities in the use of coercive measures ..read more

The government has released a new definition of extremism which has been described by rights groups as ‘deeply cynical and completely unworkable’. Announcing the move, Michael Gove said it is necessary to meet the increasing threat from extremist ideologies. Groups who satisfy the definition will be excluded from engaging with, and receiving funding from government ..read more

The Ministry of Justice has announced a delay in implementing certain reforms to the legal aid means test until 2026, signalling the government’s further neglect of the justice system. The President of the Law Society, Nick Emmerson, said this was evidence of the government’s ‘consistent refusal’ to allocate resources to an ailing justice system. One ..read more