Antigone is a grant giving foundation that gives small grants to start up or early stage charities in healthcare, education and criminal justice.
LATEST REPORTS ON REAL PRISON COSTS
- Diverting people with mental health problems away from prison to appropriate care more than pays for itself through reduced crime figures Sainsbury's Centre Mental Health Report
- What is the cost of prison as a crime prevention measure compared to other programmes and approaches? Matrix present the Economic Case For And Against Prison
- New Economic's Foundation presents the economic case for how we all benefit from investing in alternatives for women than prison for short term sentences Costs of incarcerating women to society
Facts About Crime and Prisons Today
- In the England, Wales and Northern Ireland there are 82,066 adults in prison, 4,269 of whom are women and girls. This compares with 44,000 in 1993. In Scotland there are 7200.
- France have the same population as us but only 56,279 are in prison. Germany have 20 million more than us but less in prison, 73,203 in total. (Nov 08)
- England and Wales has the highest incarceration level in North West Europe at 156 in 100,000 of the population.
- Total prisons expenditure has increased from £2.843 billion in 1995 to £4.325 bn in 2006 (2006 prices)
- The number of prisoners in England and Wales has increased by 30% in the ten years from 1997 to 2007. Previously it took nearly four decades for the prison population to rise by 25,000.
- 125,880 people entered prison in England and Wales in 2007.
- The number of women has increased by 60% over the past decade compared to 28% for men.
- In the UK 2.5% of total GDP is spent on the criminal justice system, a higher per capita level than in any other EU country or the USA
- More than 3000 new laws have been created in the last 10 years
- Three quarters of all young offenders are reconvicted within a year of release
- It costs more than £40,000 per year per prison place. This compares to around £30,000 for a place at Eton for a year. Senior Prison Officers earn £35,000 a year.
- In 2002 it was recorded that reoffending cost the UK £11 Billion a year
Facts taken from the latest 2008 report sponsored by the Bromley Trust, these briefings bring together research from all the latest publications Bromley Briefings
Make Justice Work!
The last big piece of social reform affecting affecting human rights of committed offenders in the UK came in the 1950s and ended capital punishment. What next?
Make Justice Work is a dynamic new campaign aimed at changing public opinion towards short term sentencing and ultimately government policy on the issue. Make Justice Work is not about being liberal or lenient it is about calling for robust alternatives to custody, increasing public safety and offering much better value for money. In other words it is about calling for a criminal justice system that works.
You can learn more about the Make Justice Work campaign here.
www.makejusticework.org.uk
Pupils Get New Web Platform To Report Crime
Schools around the UK are being offered the chance to join up to the new Sharp system which allows pupils to report information about crime anonymously via email or text.
After being successfully piloted, 145 schools are now signed up and have created their own personalised micro sites which work as an electronic "bully box" allowing pupils to pass on concerns about bullying and anti social behaviour.
Paul Maloney, a 28 year old web designer who developed the system after a chance meeting with a local PC, says that feedback from teachers and community police officers suggests that it means head teachers or community police can often step in earlier before criminal behaviour escalates.
"These children are part of the digital revolution - everything they do is on the internet or using their phones, it is part and parcel of their lives now. It made sense to give them this chance to speak out and give them a voice".