Few now disagree that the prison system is in crisis. Assaults and self-harm are at the highest levels since modern records began, re-offending rates remain stubbornly high and inspection reports are consistently damning. All this at a time when crime is rapidly rising up the polls of matter of public concern.

Perhaps it is a cliché to say – as figures as disparate as Dostoevsky, Churchill and Mandela have done – that prisons are a reflection of the society in which they are based – but it may be true nonetheless.

So at a time when pubic institutions of all types seem to be failing, what can we learn from the prison crisis about how our institutions are managed and how we can rebuild effective public services?

Speaker biography

Nicholas Hardwick is Professor of Criminal Justice at the Royal Holloway University of London, Chair of New Horizon Youth Centre, Vice-Chair of Prisoners Abroad and a patron of the Zahid Mubarek Trust.

He has held an expansive career in the voluntary sector and UK criminal justice system for over two decades as Chief Executive of Centrepoint (1986 – 1995) and the British Refugee Council (1995 – 2003); Executive Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (2003 – 2010); Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales and Chair of the UK National Preventative Mechanism (2010 – 2016); and Chair of the Parole Board for England and Wales (2016 - 18).