Should Assisted Suicide be offered to Criminals serving ‘Whole-Life’ Tariffs?
British judges can sentence heinous criminals to ‘whole-life’ tariffs. These sentences are used sparingly with only about 60 people serving such sentences currently*. Whole-life tariffs are a prolonged...
View ArticleThe greatest post-war British prime minister: Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson created modern Britain. Between 1964 and 1970 Britain was changed into a caring, tolerant society, a civilised society. Every aspect of British life was touched, for the good, by Harold...
View ArticlePrisons Aren’t Care Homes
The “creditor” always becomes more humane to the extent that he has grown richer.… It is not unthinkable that a society might attain such a consciousness of power that it could allow itself the noblest...
View ArticleSolitary Confinement: US style
Bruce Ward , imprisoned in Arkansas since 1990, has been in solitary confinement through-out that period i.e. 27 years. “He spends all day and night in a cell measuring 12 ft by 7.5 ft (3.6 metres by...
View ArticleRudolf Hess, Rolf Harris and humanitarian sentencing
“There is to my mind no justification for keeping Hess in prison any longer. He is 88. He has been in prison for 40 years. He has been without the company of other prisoners for over 16 years....
View ArticleCapital Punishment as Entertainment in England, 1649-1868
The King’s head was held up to the crowd. The spectators, some who had watched in approval and some in dismay, were quickly dispersed by officials, but a few sought grisly souvenirs of the event...
View ArticleTraditional forms of punishment: Britain* 1700-1900
Traditionally, British judges sentencing criminals had five principal options: capital punishment, corporal punishment, exile, imprisonment and torture. Judges sentencing criminals to ‘savage’...
View ArticleBook review: Anonymous ~ The Secret Barrister: stories of the Law and How...
The Secret Barrister quickly establishes his non-traditional background. He was educated at a comprehensive school and isn’t a high-flyer. His post-2000 career has been blighted by reductions in legal...
View ArticleBritain’s incoherent drug laws
The British government’s rhetoric about drug use is facile. Heroically misplaced aspirations are paraded with the premise that positive action will be decisive. A so-called Drug Tsar was appointed as...
View ArticleNegotiated death sentences for heinous criminals in Britain 2019
Expressing surprise at the few votes required for an acquittal, Socrates joked that he be punished with free meals at the Prytaneum (the city’s sacred hearth), an honour usually held for a benefactor...
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Elderly Prisoners, Over-crowded Prisons and the Coronavirus Pandemic
‘Prisons designed for fit, young men must adjust to the largely unexpected and unplanned roles of care home and even hospice. Increasingly, prison staff are having to manage not just ageing prisoners...
View ArticleShould Geriatrics be Imprisoned?
A 91-year-old man [Eric Grant] has been sentenced to ten years in jail for his sexual offences against a young girl almost two decades ago.1 In 1990, a Conservative white paper concluded: “We know that...
View ArticleAre Whole Life Sentences Inhumane?
…..when a judge passes a ‘whole life order’. This sentence means that the offender must spend the rest of their life in prison.1 Malcolm Green received a whole life order in 1989 because, it was...
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