A report into the state of the criminal justice system (pdf).
The Commission was set up in April 2024 to consider the future of policing, the courts,sentencing and prisons and to draw up proposals for reform.
The report begins by commenting that "the problems in the criminal justice system are clear for all to see. The police are struggling to retain public trust, the prisons are overflowing and the courts backlog is causing insufferable delays. Every part of the system is in crisis and a sense of lawlessness has taken hold in too many neighbourhoods and high streets. The commission’s job was to find solutions."
The year-long project was chaired by Times journalist Rachel Sylvester and was supported by a group of "commissioners" from the worlds of policing, intelligence, the law, business, science, social policy and medicine."
The commission's remit was to look at everything from knife crime to violence against women and girls, cybercrime to sentencing, shoplifting to mental health, policing to prisons.
Evidence was taken from more than 500 witnesses including chief constables, prison governors, judges, probation officers and victims. It visited police stations, prisons and courts in this country and around the world. It commissioned economic analysis, opinion polls and focus group research to get as full a picture as possible of what is working and what is not functioning properly.
Three core principles became clear and underpin the report.
- First, the criminal justice system must be seen as an interconnected whole rather than being broken into its constituent parts.
- Second, it is time to end the sloganising about law and order and follow the evidence about what works.
- Third, technology has the power to transform the criminal justice system.
The full report can be read here
The Oswin Project - The Times crime and justice commission
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