JUSTICE Event

Time Better Spent: Improving Decision-Making in Prison.

Thursday 21st March 2024

18.00hrs – registration from 17.45hrs followed by a drinks reception.

Sidley Austin LLP (70 St Mary Axe, London EC3A 8BE)

The launch event will include a panel discussion on the report’s findings, where we will hear from the Chair of the Working Party, Professor Nick Hardwick (former Chair of the Parole Board and formerly Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons) and Professor Nicola Padfield KC (Hons), with further speakers to be announced.

If you would like to attend, please register here or RSVP to [email protected].

Today, the prison system in England and Wales faces a crisis of overcrowding, with staff shortages and insufficient resourcing, capacity, or structures in place to allow for rehabilitation. Many prisoners are spending the vast majority of their time in cells without meaningful activity. Against that backdrop, the need for everyday decision-making to be, and be seen to be, lawful, fair and correct is all the more pressing.

JUSTICE is concerned that too few safeguards exist with respect to the decision-making processes applying to those in prison, who ought to be afforded appropriate access to justice to enforce their human rights. This is fundamental to upholding the rule of law.

This report will examine a number of discrete areas of decision-making, including categorisation, segregation, incentives and adjudications. It will also examine some broader areas of concern, such as the standards of treatment to which prisoners are (or should be) entitled, and the mechanisms by which prisoners may seek redress when things go wrong. The report will make a variety of recommendations, each of which is aimed at making decision-making processes more transparent, comprehensible and defensible.