At the heart of his book is his conclusion that prison simply does not work, failing on three fundamental levels. The view of the popular media is that when prisoners are locked up they cannot commit crime. This is not true. Podmore shows how crime actually proliferates in prison, how serious organised crime is allowed to flourish there through bad management, and how the UK's prisons are a multi-million pound investment bank for the black economy. The public sees prison as a deterrent. Th...

Psychiatry in Prisons provides a comprehensive overview of the history, problems and development of psychiatric health care in prisons, focusing particularly on the UK. The contributors tackle a broad range of issues, from familiar mental health issues such as substance misuse, self-injury and health screening to complex legal, moral and philosophical dilemmas. It also draws comparisons with the US correctional mental health system and the delivery of mental health services in New Zealand ...

The number one bestselling memoir of one of New Labour’s three founding architects, now with a revealing new chapter updating this e-book edition.Peter Mandelson is one of the most influential politicians of modern times. ‘The Third Man’ is his story – of a life played out in the backroom and then on the frontline of the Labour Party during its unprecedented three terms in government.Much of the book is devoted to the defining political relationships of Peter Mandelson’s li...

Is there one law for those at the top and a different one for those at the front line? This story describes how a young, dedicated and straight cop was driven from his career because he crossed the line. But with a degree of poetic justice in the end, those who persecuted him eventually faced their own career-defining dramas.This true crime short story is from "Australia's Queen of True Crime", Robin Bowles, who brings her many years experience investigating and writing on true cri...

The tragic and violent death of 17-month old Baby P at the hands of those who were supposed to love and care for him has sickened the nation. That such unimaginable cruelty could be unleashed on an innocent child - and fail to be picked up on by the authorities - has led to a public outcry and a media storm.This is a comprehensive look at the events leading up to the death of Baby P. A recent investigation has found that there was poor communication between authorities, a repeated failure ...

'I hugely admire him ... This book is not just a show-off catalogue of his greatest hits. It is a shaming, chilling list of injustices' A.N. Wilson'A fascinating and passionate record of the author's major cases in courts, inquests and public inquiries, whose context will be as familiar to the general reader as to the lawyer' SpectatorMichael Mansfield, QC, is Britain's most high-profile defence lawyer, whose unparalleled commitmen...

In March 2013, Vicky Pryce was sentenced to eight months in prison for accepting her ex-husband's penalty points on her driving licence some ten years earlier. After a very public trial, she was sent first to the notorious Holloway and then to East Sutton Park, an open prison in Kent. Inside, she kept a diary documenting her views and experiences; from this diary, Prisonomics was born. Faced with the realities of life behind bars and inspired by the stories of the women she met, Pryce bega...

An investigation into an intriguing murder case and an unprecedented account of how the decisions made by organs of government can be defended and mistakes covered up.Anna-Jane Cheney worked at the epicentre of the conservative Adelaide legal community. She was vivacious, popular and talented, with an impeccable middle-class upbringing. The man she loved, Henry Vincent Keogh, was a divorced 39-year-old Irish migrant with three children. She died just six weeks before their wedding ...

‘When put to the test, most people have difficulty identifying what justice is, especially when there is tension between proper process and a desired result. Due process is inherent in our conception of justice. But bad process can yield the right result, just as good process can produce the wrong result. The legal system is designed to produce justice. We call it the justice system — sometimes un-selfconsciously, sometimes with bitter irony. It is designed to produce justice according to ...

Best summer reads 2015 John Crace, GuardianNot for everyone the title of Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary or other such hallowed callings; the vast majority of the House of Commons is made up of backbenchers – the power behind the constitutionally elected throne.Here is a guide for anyone and everyone fascinated by the quirks and foibles of Westminster Palace, covering all species of backbencher and providing every hardworking MP and political ent...

Cape Town is two cities. One is beautiful beyond imagining, known since its beginning as the 'fairest cape' in the world. Here tourists come to lounge on beaches, scale misty peaks and dine in fine restaurants. The other is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, where police need bullet-proof vests and sometimes army backup. Here gangs of young men rule the night with heavy calibre handguns, dispensing heroin, cocaine, crystal meth and fear. This is the story of the second city… In...

In a whirlwind demolition of dozens of misconceptions about crime, Nick Ross proposes what is arguably the most radical re-think of crime policy since the dawn of policing. Setting conventional thinking on its head, Crime challenges everything we take for granted, showing why the criminal justice system has little effect on crime rates, how policing has been hijacked to serve the needs of lawyers, and how 'facts' about crime are continually manipulated to serve the needs of politicians and...