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 to their victims, the exercise is largely futile – statistics show that up to half will re-offend within a year. This ‘revolving-door’ model puts even more pressure on an already-stretched legal system, leading to new cases taking ever longer to come to court: even the controversial proposal to axe some jury trials would make little impact on these delays. There’s a lot to talk about, so why not join us for an hour of lively discussion on these important issues!