Building a more humane and effective response to crime.
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The Howard League
We are delighted to have won the Sheila McKechnie Foundation's 'Best Use of Law' award for our campaign to end unlawful isolation and segregation of children in custody. 🏆
Watch this video to find out more about the campaign: https://www.youtube.com/live/Cu10C4emYBw?si=XmZfEmCuLGbhcTp7&t=2136
The video includes a speech by our Legal Director, Gemma Abbott, thanking Law for Change and Ayesha Christie from Matrix Chambers for their key roles in the campaign.
In 2024, 65% of pain inducing techniques used against children and young people in YOIs and training centres, were “outside of policy”, or what we would call unlawful.
Catch up on our Spotlights webinar on use of force: https://howardleague.org/spotlights/
"This powerful report from the IMBs lifts the lid on a prison system in turmoil. It reveals the gulf between the rhetoric we hear in Westminster and the reality we see in overwhelmed and under-resourced jails."
More on IMB's annual report here: https://ow.ly/tujl50Z9qau
"Nineteen thousand."
WATCH: The Justice and Home Affairs Committee hears that 19,000 people are being held in prison cells without automatic fire detection equipment.
And that's not to mention all the other fire safety improvement works that are required across the estate.
"Inmates in England and Wales live among vermin while gangs control entire wings, monitors warn, with failures ‘at risk of becoming normalised’"
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/10/grim-reality-of-prison-conditions-laid-bare-in-damning-report
"Inmate died in fire and another almost lost leg to spider in UK’s packed prisons."
https://metro.co.uk/2026/06/10/inmate-died-fire-another-almost-lost-leg-spider-uks-packed-prisons-28710136/
