Frances Crook @francescrook Twitter profile

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

18 days

A big challenge for the new government is the prison crisis

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 months

That’s it. It’s over. My lifelong Conservative supporting neighbour has a Vote Labour placard in his front garden.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

Barnet was not just won by Labour, it was a rout. 41 Labour Councillors to 22 Conservative.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

275 people helped at the foodbank today, including over 100 children. Perfectly normal people, often in work, just not able to manage on poverty wages with rising prices. Utterly shaming for our country.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

1 year

The population of UK is around 65 million. There are not hundreds of millions trying to come to UK. The man is an idiot.

PoliticsJOE

@PoliticsJOE_UK

1 year

"We simply can't accept 100s of millions of people. This country is nearly full." - Scott Benton MP, Conservative

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

What does ‘living as a woman’ mean?

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

29 days

Am I the only person who thinks drag is the misogynist equivalent of the Black and White Minstrels?

Humanists UK

@Humanists_UK

29 days

. @LGBTHumanistsUK are very lucky to have drag superstars @iamblackpeppa and @CarrotDrag leading such a great cast, with performances, exhibitions, film screenings and more! A huge celebration of the positive impact of humanism on law and culture Tickets:

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

We are running two sessions a week at the food bank now, and letting people select their own food. Tuesday saw 337 people, including 93 children, helped. But food banks should not be needed, they are vital, but a national disgrace.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

“Trying to get him to wash his hands was hard enough” #partygate

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

This case illustrates how it is important to recognise sex, not gender. This person downloading 80,000 abusive pictures of children will be classified as a crime by a woman, inflating the apparent sex offending by women

Blackpool woman accessed 'sick' child abuse images from hospital bed

Julie Marshall, 56, of Warbreck Drive, had more than 80,000 indecent images of children

www.lancs.live

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

11 years

I'm glad I am a woman. According to the #guardian obituaries pages women hardly ever die.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

1 year

As I understand it, it’s not illegal to arrive in a boat and claim asylum. @BBCr4today saying it is on news headlines. Can @crimlawuk or other lawyer clarify?

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

The man in charge of justice is being investigated for injustice. A bit like the man in charge of tax being investigated for tax avoidance….

At least 24 civil servants involved in complaints against Dominic Raab, say sources

Exclusive: Insiders believe depth of inquiry and severity of some claims means deputy PM will struggle to keep job

www.theguardian.com

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

274 people were given food and basics today at the food bank, including 99 children. Feeding the poor on Christmas Eve, we’ve gone back 200 years in the last decade.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

If you really care about preventing violence against women, you must support and defend women's rights

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

I am starting the process of @TheHowardLeague taking legal action against Sajid Javid on the death penalty. Please watch this space.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

. @jk_rowling has spent the whole day being lovely to children #WorldBookDay

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

A hundred years ago the law was changed so pregnant women could not be hanged. It is possible to exempt pregnant women from prison, remand and sentence. There’ll be no explosion of crime. There will be an explosion of humanity.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

1 year

@LabourRoyall @Keir_Starmer @lucianaberger She stood against Labour in my constituency only 3 years ago. Not forgiven. Not forgotten.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

@sussex_police @Weatherwax6655 @SussexPCC Hi @sussex_police can you tell us if this crime was counted as being committed by a man or a woman? He was male when he committed the offences. Men commit an overwhelming majority of sex/violent crimes and just a few male crimes allocated to women would skew the figures (1/2)

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

19 days

I think @RosieDuffield1 should be the Minister for Women and Equalities

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

My first day volunteering in a food bank. I ended up in tears at the bloody injustice of it all.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

@sussex_police @Weatherwax6655 @SussexPCC 15,000 men in prison convicted of sex crimes, around 100 women

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 months

@IanDunt I detest everything Tory but along with the majority of women, including Labour women, I support women only spaces.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

The key lesson from the investigation into the death of a baby in Bronzefield prison is that pregnant women should not be held in prison, it's not safe for them or their babies

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

I have written an open letter to @sajidjavid

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

@misssamsmith @bindelj @SussexPCC @BBCr4today The person who committed these horrific sex offences against children was a man.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

It was one of the examples of theft I used to use in schools when talking to children about crime. @NadineDorries fesses up.

First Edition

@FirstEdition

2 years

"There are four other people who can use my Netflix account in different parts of the country...am I not supposed to do that?" Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries admits breaking Netflix's terms and conditions. @NadineDorries | @julianknight15

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

To clarify. I wasn’t talking about how individuals should be treated, but about statistics. There are 14,000 men in prison convicted of sex crimes, and about 100 women. One more is an increase of one percent, that’s statistically significant.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

1 year

Absolutely right, @campbellclaret says get rid of resignation honours and stop Johnson from sending his rich friends to the House of Lords.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

Six prison officers in the Sodexo prison looked into the young woman's cell where she had given birth alone, where there was blood all over the floor, and she was cradling her dead baby. None noticed anything wrong

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

9 months

I had to explain to my four year old granddaughter why people are sleeping on London’s streets. She said the prime minister should be sacked.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

Women have to have protected and safe spaces, just for women

Hundreds of vulnerable patients sexually assaulted on NHS wards, data reveals

A loophole in official guidelines means hospitals are still forcing female patients to mix with men on wards

www.independent.co.uk

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

There are only 18 girls in penal estate (over 500 boys) and it would be wrong and positively dangerous to put them in prisons with the boys, which is what @HMPPS is apparently planning

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

Rather than solve the problem, giving magistrates the power to jail people for a year would increase prison crowding. It is not justice for lay people to have draconian powers.

Give us powers to lock up criminals for longer and clear courts backlog, demand magistrates

Magistrates’ Association says they should be allowed to hand out terms of up to one year, double what is currently permitted

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

I’ve worked with 15 justice secretaries (some twice) and @DavidGauke is one of the most sensible, courageous and thoughtful. He is right, abolition of short prison sentences would make a tangible difference to prisons and would protect victims

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

Men urged not to sexually attack women

Standard News

@standardnews

6 years

Women urged not use earphones while walking at night after sex attacks

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

@soniasodha It’s domination and emotional abuse. I saw a ‘trans woman’ in a women’s prison who was physically dominating the cell block with women scattered around the edges. S/he was enjoying the control, had found a way to abuse women without the need to touch them, subtle and cruel

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

9 years

I have just received this http://t.co/WxY0Qsn9Zb

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

I am a grandmother 💓

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

Interesting to hear all these conservative leadership candidates saying youthful class A drug taking shouldn’t be an issue, I hope they remember that when it’s black working class kids and sentencing

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

1 year

She shouldn’t have been arrested. She shouldn’t have been prosecuted. She shouldn’t have been sent to prison. The criminal justice system is shameful. And so are the individuals who colluded with this.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

I fear that @RoryStewartUK is just too grown up to be elected leader of the Tory party. A mesmerising interview on @BBCr4today this morning

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

@bbclaurak @BBCPolitics Turns out the man who challenged the PM is also the father of a sick child. There, I've corrected it for you.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

This man @lloyd_rm is despicable and should be dismissed by @Keir_Starmer

Tim (totally unremarkable)

@forwardnotback

4 years

Any MP, and certainly a Labour MP, who engages in victim shaming and accusing a woman of exploiting her own sexual assault and abuse shouldn't just be removed from the @UKLabour front bench they should have the Whip removed

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill is 307 pages and has 18 additional documents amounting to some 400 pages. The punishment for damaging a statue will be 10 years in prison. Nothing on women.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

The Ministry of Justice has refused to tell me how many people took their own lives by suicide whilst under the supervision of each private probation company. I am going to appeal the refusal. It is in the public interest to know.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

Grayling should be held accountable for a vanity project that destroyed 100 year old probation service that worked well for the public

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

Over 11,500 men and women are released from prison to homelessness each year. I suggest solving that would do more to prevent theft than pouring money into the pockets of private tagging companies

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

It was a mistake to merge the organisations representing the rights of different groups into the @EHRC as when their rights conflict, which inevitably happens, it has picked one sectional interest to promote and another to deny

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

1 year

Pregnant women and mothers of little babies should never, never, be sent to prison

HMP Bronzefield baby death followed systemic failings - inquest

A vulnerable woman gave birth alone in a jail cell after two calls to prison staff went unanswered.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

Prison governors don’t like whole life sentences, because they know if you take every vestige of hope away, it makes people dangerous and unmanageable

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

7 years

Lawyers & former law officers. Protecting the rule of law.

Faisal Islam

@faisalislam

7 years

Understand it is 12 Tory rebels Grieve Clarke Morgan Stevenson Neill S Hammond Heald Soubry Wollaston Djanogly Sandbach Allen

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

@DeborahMeaden It’s 307 pages plus 400 pages of addenda. It has a lot of dreadful provisions, including ten years prison for minor damage. I have read it.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

Let's dispel a myth. Prisoners do not get three meals a day. In fact the budget is around £2 a day, for which they get a baguette at lunch, a small breakfast pack and one hot meal a day. They supplement with sweets they buy themselves. Prison diet is stodgy and meagre.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

More than half the children in prison are BAME. We can’t kid ourselves, justice in this country is still riven with racism #BlackLivesMatter

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

I met three prisoners today studying for degrees in Mathematics , Ancient Greek and Humanities, volunteering to help others with their education. Education is redemption.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

The death of a baby born to a woman alone in prison cell, in a private prison, is choking me up. As a grandmother of a small baby more than as a penal reformer

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

A new prison in Norway is built with big windows all facing greenery & trees so there is natural light as well as security - makes for a calmer environment, better for prisoners & for staff. Totally opposite to design of new prisons in England & Wales which are claustrophobic

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

I’ve just done interview in @BBCManchester that spoke to a man released from prison with £12 in his pocket & hoping his tent was still where he hid it. Taxpayer spent £1000s locking him up & then dumps him on the street. You can guess what happens next.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

I remember a prison governor getting all his women out of their cells in Holloway prison during a heatwave, so they and staff could sit under trees, and he bought fans for the cells. Humanity and good care for staff. It can be done.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

I don’t wear heels and lipstick. But then I am actually a woman.

Iseult

@iseult

2 years

Take away the lipstick and heels and you are left with a man. Out of the mouths of ... men 😂

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

Prison should be reserved for serious violent criminals, not people who are trying to save the planet (whether you agree with them or not)

Blackpool activists jailed for anti-fracking protest

Three protesters given prison sentences for blocking Cuadrilla lorry convoy

www.theguardian.com

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

If only Chris Grayling had confessed he’d made a total mess of his privatisation of probation as he’s done today on the east coast railway. We should bring all of probation back into a public service to serve the public.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

This is a welcome start, but, if these women pose no risk they should never have been sent to prison

Danny Shaw

@DannyShawNews

4 years

MoJ says “Pregnant women in custody who do not pose a high risk of harm...will be temporarily released from prison within days to protect them & their unborn children from coronavirus. Prisoners in Mother & Baby Units meeting the same risk assessment will also be released”

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

@brianpaddick @fairplaywomen Hi Brian, when I looked at the figures there were about 14,000 men in prison convicted of sex crimes and about 100. So only a handful of additional crimes allocated to women would look like a significant surge

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

It’s taken over a week to get six pregnant women released from prison during a health emergency. That’s a national disgrace

Justice Committee

@CommonsJustice

4 years

6 pregnant women have been released from prison so far; suitable accommodation is being found for them beforehand.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

Nick Hardwick is the epitome of integrity. It’s a disgrace that he has been forced into resignation.

The Parole Board

@Parole_Board

6 years

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

Prisoners given tents on release because private companies meant to be delivering probation support don't find them anywhere to live

Prisoners are given TENTS when they leave jail

Inmates were handed camping equipment when they left Kirklevington Grange in North Yorkshire because probation staff were unable to find them accommodation, bosses admitted.

www.dailymail.co.uk

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

I visited a prison last week holding women and was told that up to half of the women are homeless or in precarious housing on release. Just proves my argument that short prison sentences make things worse, for everyone.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

But this person will be recorded as a female offender, inflating the statistics of the extremely small number of women who are convicted of sex offences. It will look like women are becoming more dangerous- and we are not.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

Don't send pregnant women to prison.

Sanchia Berg

@Sanchia7

5 years

This is an excellent piece by @mdwifeteacher ... after a baby died in Bronzefield prison - how can we improve care for pregnant women in jail ?

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

A lot to love in @GarethMalone Aylesbury prison choir. Most startling was the change in physical demeanour of the young men. Being surly is their only way of exhibiting dissent in a jail designed to oppress totally. At the choir, they stood tall and polite. A lesson for the jail.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

Minister says she has no plan to release prisoners early, I think she should plan for it, otherwise if she has to do it she won’t have a plan

Prisons: Coronavirus

Ministry of Justice written question – answered at 19 March 2020

www.theyworkforyou.com

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

@NinaKillen I would absolutely want to be in a women only ward in a hospital. And, want to protect women only medical services

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

One of my team @TheHowardLeague was at Feltham prison when a teenage boy was being released today. No one turned up to meet him and the gate staff wouldn't let him use their phone. My staff lent him her phone. Eventually a friend, not family, turned up.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

This may be my favourite interview ever. (Apart from looking like She after going through the fire twice)

Channel 4 News

@Channel4News

3 years

Multiple failings led to an 18-year-old woman giving birth alone in her cell to a baby which died in Europe's largest women's prison, a report has found. Frances Crook, CEO of the Howard League for Penal Reform, told @JackieLongc4 prisons are “not safe” for pregnant women.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

And Iain Duncan Smith is also wrong about who is going to be sent to Rwanda. They are not being chosen. They are being randomly allocated. That’s why there was such a mess with people who legally had a right to stay being pulled off the plane at the last minute.

Rory Stewart

@RoryStewartUK

2 years

The government explained that if these asylum-seekers were granted asylum they would stay in Rwanda. IDS seems to be supporting a policy he doesn’t understand.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

I know @RobertBuckland to be a man of integrity and intelligence, so I am bemused as to how he can collude with the nonsense coming out of @10DowningStreet about magic money, more mega jails and longer sentences. None of it will be safer for victims, taxpayers or communities

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

Women can be, and are, sent to prison on remand ‘for their own protection’ even if the alleged offence is not serious enough to carry a custodial sentence. It’s a hangover from Victorian times. @TheHowardLeague is calling for its repeal

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

I’ve never forgotten Philip Knight, 15 years old remanded to prison by magistrates for stealing a handbag in a desperate attempt to run away from an abusive children’s home. Hanged himself on his first night in jail. Never forgotten.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

We are asking prison officers to do an incredibly difficult job, managing and helping people who’ve done nasty things but often have mental health etc problems. It should be a profession, like nursing, with proper training, education and remuneration.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

How often have police said a woman is safe and well after neighbours have heard her screaming to get off me, and subsequently found his serious controlling or abusive behaviour?

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

A woman left alone in a private prison to give birth and the baby dies. Close the prison! Protect women from this utter disgrace.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

Child, died whilst being restrained by white security guards in a private prison. They weren’t even sacked.

Sally Keeble

@Sally_Keeble

3 years

"I can't breathe." Thinking of 14-yr-old Gareth Myatt, killed by restraint in Northamptonshire as #GeorgeFloydTrial delivers justice for a similar death in the US tonight

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

I had one formal meeting with Chris Grayling when he was Justice Secretary. He started shouting crossly at me before we had even shaken hands. He was not a minister who listened to advice.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

Minister saying prisoners should be involved in purposeful activity will have to provide it. It’s not prisoners’ fault they’re kept in idleness, it’s his fault

The Howard League | ‘Time well spent’ in prisons

Frances Crook blogs about the government's plan to provide more purposeful activity in prisons.

howardleague.org

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

This will be the first prison run by a religious organisation, and it will be for detained vulnerable children. They will have no choice or say in the matter. Forcing religion onto children is not right.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

A few men eligible for early release were sent home a few days early. It was an admin error, not a disaster. The real problem is gross prison crowding and threat to public health. Time for principled leadership

Coronavirus: Early prison release scheme suspended after errors

An administrative failure sees six low-risk inmates released by mistake, prompting a review.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

I welcome the sensible move by @DavidGauke to bring probation back into a public service. @TheHowardLeague recommends national strategy with local delivery linked to other services

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

3 years

Our very democracy is under threat. I am working on a new Commission to consider what should happen next. Will be launched in the spring. Watch this space.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

2 years

99% of rapes do not result in a charge. Men can rape with impunity.

Danny Shaw

@DannyShawNews

2 years

NEW Another fall in the proportion of crimes leading to a suspect being charged. It was 5.4% in July 2021-June 2022. That’s about 1 in 20 offences. Last year it was 6.5%. In 2014-15 it was 15.5%. Data from @ukhomeoffice

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

1 year

Look what I bought

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

Chief inspector of probation says you can’t contractualise probation, that private companies are hitting targets but failing in every respect. This undermines whole concept of private probation and @DavidGauke must now reinstate public and professional service.

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

5 years

Building more prisons is, as the Times says, an exercise in ego and reputation. It is a gross squandering of taxpayers’ money

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

Grayling’s privatisation of probation has been a disaster & led to more violent crime & victims. Probation needs sorting if we are to end short prison sentences & get people on to effective community support

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

A top lawyer has suggested to me that we @TheHowardLeague challenge @sajidjavid ’s disgraceful decision to condone the death penalty in the courts. Lawyers, what do you think?

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

The number of people dying in prisons is not being reported. #coronavirus

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

4 years

We could release the mothers and babies from prison #mothersday2020

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

6 years

If we look behind the homicides in London, about half appear to be domestic murders with women primarily the victims. Concentrating on gangs and putting more police on the streets won't protect them.

London homicide toll reaches 100 at earliest point of year since 2008

Domestic abuse linked to almost as many killings as gang violence, Met figures show

www.theguardian.com

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Frances Crook

@francescrook

1 year

Every probation service was ranked excellent or very good when it was a locally run public service, then Cameron and Grayling destroyed it. Intriguing that all those historic good inspection reports have been removed from the inspectorate website.

Sky News

@SkyNews

1 year

"Half of the services we inspected were rated as inadequate." HM Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell on the findings of the Serious Further Offences (SFO) Report which looks at the number of those on probation re-offending and more. 📺 Sky 501

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