Penal Landscape : The Howard League Guide to Criminal Justice in England and Wales

The Howard League for Penal Reform is committed to developing an effective penal system which ensures there are fewer victims of crime, has a diminished role for prison and creates a safer community for all. In this collection of ten papers, the charity has brought together some of the most prominent academic experts in the field to map out what is happening in a specific area of criminal justice policy, ranging from prison privatisation to policing and the role of community sentences.

The Howard League guide has two main aims: first it seeks to paint a picture of the current state of the penal system, using its structures, processes and the specific groups affected by the system as the lens for analysis. However, each author also seeks to identify the challenges and gaps in understanding that should be considered to predicate a move towards a reduced role for the penal system, and prison in particular, while maintaining public confidence and safer communities. In doing so, we hope to inspire researchers and students alike to develop new research proposals that challenge the status quo and seek to create the Howard League’s vision for the criminal justice system with less crime, safer communities, fewer people in prison.

Anita Dockley is Research Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform. She joined the charity in 1991 as its penal policy officer after completing her academic studies at the London School of Economics. Anita has had many roles at the Howard League, including its Assistant Director with responsibility for policy development, press and parliamentary work. Anita has undertaken research and written on a number of subjects including self-harm and suicide in the penal system, mother and babies in prison, women lifers, and order and control in prisons. She is currently the managing editor of The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice and she is a member of the law sub panel in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework assessments.

Ian Loader is Professor and Director of Criminology at Oxford University. He is author or co-author of six books: Cautionary Tales (1994, Avebury, with S. Anderson, R. Kinsey and C. Smith), Youth, Policing and Democracy (1996, Palgrave), Crime and Social Change in Middle England (2000, Routledge, with E. Girling and R. Sparks), Policing and the Condition of England: Memory, Politics and Culture (2003, Oxford, with A. Mulcahy), Civilizing Security (2007, Cambridge, with N. Walker) and Public Criminology? (2010, Routledge, with R. Sparks). Ian is an editor of the British Journal of Criminology, Associate Editor of Theoretical Criminology and is on the editorial boards of Policing and Society, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, The Open Criminology Journal and International Political Sociology (IPS).