Reviewed by John Podmore Stephen Shaw was the prisons and subsequently the prisons and probation ombudsman from October 1999
Author: Stephen Shaw - Prisons and Probation Ombudsman
After nearly eleven years as Ombudsman, I am stepping down in May for a new challenge in a new
If you were to stop a hundred people in the street and ask them what Restorative Justice means I
Jonathan King was in characteristically jaunty form with his article for last month’s Inside Time about a prisoners’ right
When I began work as Ombudsman ten years ago, two subjects of complaint dominated my workload. In my first year
As my friends are apt to point out, Ombudsman is an odd job title to have. It is actually
An article in April’s issue of Inside Time incorrectly suggested that, as Ombudsman, I could act as a point
Prisons remove all sorts of freedom, but one of the most important is the ability to communicate freely. As
Another new venue for the Koestler Awards This time nearly perfect, I’d say. The Royal Festival Hall on the
Earlier this year, a POA official, Mr Glyn Travis, was widely reported as saying that some jails were so
Research shows that the average sentence for drug ‘mules’ during 2002-2007, most of whom are first offenders, was between
The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a report on the effectiveness and supervision of community punishment orders that
In a remark attributed to the former Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley, “complaints are jewels to be treasured.” What she
The pains of imprisonment take many forms, but I suppose most people would say that separation from family is
Yet it stands to reason that prisons have to be secure (the dramatic reduction in the number of successful
A peek into my postbag this month. First up, a complaint about missing property. It turns out the prison