The Prison System and 12 Years of Abject Disaster: 'The scale of failure is staggering'

This seminar is hosted by the Centre for Law, Science and Policy and the School of Law Research Seminar Series. Our series offers exciting insights into ongoing research projects within the law school and conducted by our external research partners. We often feature work from our research centres (the Centre for American Legal Studies, the Centre for Human Rights, the Centre for Science, Law and Policy, and the International Business Law Research Group). Our work is often transdisciplinary, dealing with law's relationship with broadly defined social justice, policy-making, science and much more. Join us for invigorating discussion!

In this session, we hear from Ms Jessica Gallagher, a lecturer who has recently joined the BCU School of Law. Jessica is a Lecturer at BCU and a final year PhD student at De Montfort University. Her PhD looks at the high incidence of self-harm and suicide in the English and Welsh prison estate. Alongside that her research interests include prison conditions, sentencing reform and fundamental issues in the Criminal Justice System.

Ms Gallagher will give the following presentation, followed by an interactive Q&A:

The Prison System and 12 Years of Abject Disaster: 'The scale of failure is staggering'

Abstract

The prison system has reached ever increasing levels of chaos throughout the last 12 years, with minimal useful input from government who have informally followed the ‘prison works’ rhetoric. This seminar will initially touch on the main areas of crisis throughout this period as a crucial element of my PhD research with the fundamental aim of the seminar being to recognise ways in which law can step in and aid the prison crisis, specifically in regard to sentencing and the use of prison diversion

This seminar has now concluded but it is available on demand. If you find that you do not have access, you can email the research seminar series leader at iyan.offor@bcu.ac.uk in order to gain access.