Latest editorial
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood giving a speech at London Probation Headquarters in central London, February 12, 2025
LABOUR is trying to reverse sentencing guidelines aimed at protecting black people from unfair treatment in the criminal justice system, it emerged yesterday.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is to write to the independent Sentencing Council, urging it to reverse guidance advising judges to take into account the ethnicity or faith of the defendant before deciding whether or not to imprison.
Official figures show that people from ethnic minorities consistently receive longer sentences than white people for comparable offences.
The Tory conference was a pseudo-sacred affair, with devotees paying homage in front of Thatcher’s old shrouds — and your reporter, initially barred, only need mention he’d once met her to gain access. But would she consider what was on offer a worthy legacy, asks ANDREW MURRAY
The announcement of a Women’s Justice Board should be cautiously welcomed, writes SABINA PRICE, but we need to see a recognition that our prison system is in crisis and disproportionately punishes some of the most vulnerable people in society
