Britain’s Broken Justice System

As our long, hot summer finally comes to an end, so too has the honeymoon period for the new PM, as he confronts all those thorny issues which bedevilled his predecessors, and still remain unresolved. And one of the most intractable is the crisis in Britain’s criminal justice system, as exemplified most recently in our prisons where, not for the first time, inmates are having to be released early because of overcrowding. Quite apart from the trauma it evokes in their victims – not to mention the burden it places on the probation system – the exercise is largely futile, because the stubbornly-high reoffending rate only adds further pressure to our already-stretched judicial system. Little wonder, then, that new cases are taking ever longer to come to court – even the controversial proposal to axe some jury trials wouldn’t even scratch the surface of this long-standing problem. Is it time, then, to completely rethink our approach, by considering alternatives to locking up ever more of our fellow citizens? There’s a lot to talk about, so why not join us for an hour of lively discussion on these important issues!

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