FABIAN SOCIETY FABIAN FABIAN SOCIETY Punishment and Reform How our justice system can help cut crime ‘Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ was more than a clever soundbite; it was a successful approach to criminal justice policy that left crime 43 per cent lower when Labour departed office than when it entered. The challenge now is to build on this Punishment and Reform Ideas 630 Sadiq Khan MP Edited by Fabian legacy and further reduce crime, but within the tough spending constraints imposed by straitened times. To inform the conclusions of the Labour Party policy review, Sadiq Khan MP brings together a group of experts from across the criminal justice field to investigate reform. Their essays do not represent Labour Party policy, but are suggestions and inspiration from some of the most respected figures in the area. The authors think creatively about how to get the balance right between deterrent, punishment and rehabilitation PUNISHMENT REFORM and how to create a criminal justice system that lowers crime and protects communities whilst breaking the cycle of re-offending. & One aspect that is often overlooked is the experience of the victim. Victims should be at the heart of our criminal justice system, not only because they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, but also because their co-operation and trust is vital for it to function effectively and bring offenders to justice. But victims are often treated as mere bystanders as their cases proceed through the courts. This needs to change. In Punishment and Reform: How our justice system can help cut crime, Lord Victor Adebowale, Baroness Jean Corston, Shauneen HOW OUR Lambe, Paul McDowell, Kevin McGrath, Barry Mizen, Dame Helen JUSTICE SYSTEM Reeves, Professor Robert Reiner, Professor Julian V Roberts, Matthew CAN HELP CUT CRIME Ryder QC, Lord Norman Warner and Phil Wheatley CB consider what changes could be made to support victims and ensure justice is served more effectively in our country. Fabian Ideas 630 Subject: Politics ISBN 978 0 7163 0630 6 £9.95 Fabian Ideas 630 Sadiq Khan MP FABIAN SOCIETY The Fabian Society is Britain’s leading left of centre think tank and political society, committed to creating the political ideas and policy debates which can shape the future of progressive politics. With over 300 Fabian MPs, MEPs, Peers, MSPs and AMs, the Society plays an unparalleled role in linking the ability to influence policy debates at the highest level with vigorous grassroots debate among our growing membership of over 7000 people, 70 local branches meeting regularly throughout Britain and a vibrant Young Fabian section, and the Fabian Women’s Network. Fabian publications, events and ideas therefore reach and influence a wider audience than those of any comparable think tank. The Society is unique among think tanks in being a thriving, democratically-constituted membership organisation, affiliated to the Labour Party but organisationally and editorially independent. For over 120 years Fabians have been central to every important renewal and revision of left of centre thinking. The Fabian commitment to open and participatory debate is as important today as ever before as we explore the ideas, politics and policies which will define the next generation of progressive politics in Britai n, Europe and around the world. Fabian Society 11 Dartmouth Street London SW1H 9BN www.fabians.org.uk Fabian Ideas 630 First published 2011 ISBN 978 0 7163 0630 6 Series Editor and Editorial Director: Tom Hampson Editorial Manager: Ed Wallis This pamphlet, like all publications of the Fabian Society, represents not the collective views of the Society but only the views of the author. The responsibility of the Society is limited to approving its publications as worthy of consideration within the Labour movement. This publication may not be reproduced without express permission of the Fabian Society. © The Fabian Society 2011 The moral rights of the author have been asserted. British Library Cataloguing in Publication data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Printed and bound by DG3, London, UK To find out more about the Fabian Society, the Young Fabians, the Fabian Women’s Network and our local societies, please visit our web site at www.fabians.org.uk . Punishment and Reform How our justice system can help cut crime Edited by Sadiq Khan MP With chapters from Lord Victor Adebowale, Baroness Jean Corston, Shauneen Lambe, Paul McDowell, Kevin McGrath, Barry Mizen, Dame Helen Reeves, Professor Robert Reiner, Professor Julian V Roberts, Matthew Ryder QC, Lord Norman Warner, Phil Wheatley CB iv About the authors Rt Hon Sadiq Khan MP is the MP for Tooting. Since October 2010 he has been the Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice. He has previ - ously been a Minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government and Minister of State for Transport. Before becoming an MP he was one of the country’s leading solicitors and an elected councillor in Wandsworth for 12 years. He is a former Chair of the Fabian Society and a member of the Fabian Executive Committee. Lord Victor Adebowale has been Chief Executive of Turning Point since 2001 and has more than 25 years experience in the health, social care and housing sector. In 2000, Victor was awarded the CBE for services to the New Deal, the unemployed and homeless young people. He was appointed as a cross bench peer in 2001. Baroness Jean Corston was Labour MP for Bristol East until 2005. As an MP, she was the first woman elected to chair the Parliamentary Labour Party. Her review into vulnera - ble women in the criminal justice system was published in March 2007 and outlines "the need for a distinct radi - cally different, visibly-led, strategic, proportionate, holis - tic, woman-centred, integrated approach". Shauneen Lambe is the Director of Just for Kids Law. She is an attorney in Louisiana and a barrister in UK. She start - ed her career working for Clive Stafford Smith represent - ing people facing the death penalty in the USA. In 1999 v she helped establish the charity Reprieve. In 2006 she set up Just for Kids Law providing support, advice and rep - resentation to young people in London. Paul McDowell is Chief Executive of Nacro, the leading crime reduction charity in England and Wales. He previ - ously enjoyed a 20 year career in the Prison Service culmi - nating in spells as Governor of HMP Coldingley and then HMP Brixton. He also spent a year seconded to the Home Office working in the Prison Minister’s Private Office. Kevin McGrath is Senior Adviser to F&C REIT Asset Management. He is Chair of the McGrath Charitable Trust; Trustee of Howard League for Penal reform; The Clink Restaurant Charity; The National Education Trust; and The WAVE Trust. He is an Ambassador for the Make Justice Work Charity and served as an Commissioner on the Independent Commission on English Prisons Today. Barry Mizen and his wife Margaret, together with the rest of their family, set up the Jimmy Mizen Foundation fol - lowing the murder of their son in May 2008. The founda - tion works to promote the good in young people. One strand of this is called the Awareness Project and much of their time is now spent visiting schools and prisons. See www.jimmymizen.org for more details. Dame Helen Reeves was the founding Chief Executive of Victim Support and the Witness Service in the UK, retir - ing in 2005 after 26 years with the charity. Previously she had served for 12 years in the Probation Service. She was also a founding member of Victim Support Europe, serv - ing both as Secretary and Chair. vi Professor Robert Reiner is Professor of Criminology, Law Department, LSE. His most recent books are: 'Law and Order: An Honest Citizen's Guide to Crime and Control' (Polity Press 2007); 'The Politics of the Police' 4th.ed. (Oxford University Press 2010); 'Policing, Popular Culture and Political Economy: Towards a Social Democratic Criminology' (Ashgate 2011). Professor Julian V Roberts is Professor of Criminology in the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. He is Editor of the European Journal of Criminology and has been a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Justice Canada, a Visiting Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven and Visiting International Professor, Faculty of Law, Université Libre de Bruxelles. Matthew Ryder QC specialises in complex crime and its inter - play with civil law, including judicial review, police law, and claims under the Human Rights Act. He sits as a Crown Court Recorder and was one of only three Silks appointed in 2010 with expertise in both civil and criminal law. Lord Norman Warner is a Labour member of the House of Lords. He was Senior Policy Adviser to Jack Straw when he was the Home Secretary from 1997 to 2001. He was a member of the Dilnot Commission on funding of care and support. He was the first Chair of the Youth Justice Board and was a Minister of State at the Department of Health from the summer of 2003 until December 2006. Phil Wheatley CB is a former Director-General of the National Offender Management Service and before that he was Director-General of HM Prison Service where he was the first Director-General to have previously been a prison officer. He retired in 2010. vii CONTENTS Introduction 1 Sadiq Khan MP VICTIMS AND OFFENDERS 1. Building a Legacy of Peace 11 Barry Mizen 2. Victims at the Heart of the System? 17 Dame Helen Reeves 3. Justice and Rights 23 Matthew Ryder QC CUSTODY & COMMUNITY 4. Prisons – Changing Direction 33 Lord Norman Warner 5.