The University of Edinburgh Criminology Reading Group Seminar Series 2020/2021 presents:

"Prisoners and COVID19 in England and Wales"

Dr Laura Janes, Legal Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform in England & Wales

Dr Laura Janes was admitted as a solicitor in 2006 and has oversight of the Howard League legal service for people under 21 in prison. She has a professional doctorate in Youth Justice. Laura has developed an expertise in advising and representing children and young people in penal detention in relation to prison law, public law and criminal appeal matters. Laura is a committee member of the Association of Prison Lawyers and the Legal Aid Practitioners' Group. She is also a visiting fellow at the London South Bank University and Chair of Legal Action Group. In 2019, Laura was awarded Solicitor of the Year by the First 100 years’ Inspirational Women in Law Awards.

On 16 June 2020, in a guest post for the Secret Barrister’s blog, Laura reported that:

Some 80,000 men women and children in prison are either in prolonged solitary confinement or in overcrowded conditions. In a single day, 24 March 2020, the prison service went into lockdown and over 80 days on, it remains in that state. Prisons are devoid of purposeful activity and opportunities for people to make amends. The children in prison have had no education, rates of self-harm in women’s prisons have increased and the entire estate has been starved of contact with the outside world. Open prisons no longer serve their function of preparing people for the community.

For more information, access article: https://thesecretbarrister.com/2020/06/16/guest-post-by-dr-laura-janes-and-andrew-neilson-the-governments-refusal-to-release-prisoners-from-our-locked-down-prisons-is-cruel-and-untenable/

The event is free for all and will take place on Zoom, please register to get the link!

Any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

See you there!