“Only war makes it possible to mobilize all of today’s technical resources while maintaining the property system.”

- Walter Benjamin, 1936

About Andrew Neilson

Director of Campaigns, The Howard League for Penal Reform

Articles by Andrew Neilson

New report confirms problems of short custodial sentences for children

Andrew Neilson 22 March 2013

Warehousing children in a prison filled with other troubled young people, often for a period of weeks, is counterproductive, inhumane and a pitiful waste of public money.

Fear, bullying, violence, grime and overcrowding: one prison in Austerity Britain

Andrew Neilson 11 December 2012

HM Inspectorate of Prisons reports that cramped and dirty Lincoln Prison has rising prisoner numbers, falling staff levels, and one prisoner still inside nine years after the end of his sentence. More than half of vulnerable prisoners said that they had been victimised by other prisoners and nearly half said that they had been victimised by staff. And the government wants to keep on cutting costs.

G4S loses contract. Handing prisons to any commercial contractor is a grave mistake

Andrew Neilson 8 November 2012

The big news story is that G4S, the shambolic security company that botched the London Olympics, has today lost a major prison contract (HMP Wolds, in Lincolnshire), and failed to win any new ones. A hard blow for G4S and its shareholders. The bigger issue is that the UK government continues to privatise prisons, and commercial confidentiality shields the process from public view and democratic accountability.

Is the new Justice Secretary tough enough to act on the evidence that prison doesn’t work?

Andrew Neilson 19 October 2012

Chris Grayling may find the solutions to his problems lie in penal reform.

Tagging ex-offenders is not all it’s cracked up to be

Andrew Neilson 2 October 2012

Electronic monitoring is no substitute for drug and alcohol rehabilitation, mental health support and literacy coaching.

Investing in failure: the government’s plan for youth custody in England and Wales

Andrew Neilson 31 March 2012

Child prisons don’t work. Secure children’s homes do. Guess which ones the government is cutting?

This week's editor

Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

Europe from the bottom up

European Union stars in Paris. Flickr/notarim. Some rights reserved.

A new Europe can only come from the bottom up
Etienne Balibar

A social Europe must be a political Europe
Bo Stråth

As Europe is provincialized: a reply to Etienne Balibar
Sandro Mezzadra

European debate

A republican call for a basic income
Daniel Raventos and Julie Wark

Nuclear non-proliferation

oDRussia at journalismfestival .com

Mali - the plot thickens

Remote control war

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