Criminologist Jon Burnett is concerned about the long-term impact on policing and criminal justice of the government’s response to the riots and its use of ‘underclass’ theories. And so the ‘social fightback’ has begun. This month’s riots and disorders were a wake-up call to Britain, according to the prime minister. Returning to his pre-election theme
Theme: Violence and harassment
Resisting the Bratton brand: lessons from the US
Rachel Herzing of Critical Resistance in California warns that zero tolerance policing will have long-term social consequences if adopted in the UK. I, like many people I know, watched the uprisings in Britain earlier this month with fascination and concern. More than merely being headline news, the uprisings and the police response to them were
Defending multiculturalism
A new book provides all the ammunition needed to take on today’s fights against racism. It is ironic that so many of the contributors to this book, Defending Multiculturalism: A Guide For The Movement, including those from unions, the Socialist Workers Party and the Institute of Race Relations – would not, a generation ago, have
How to get rid of foreign prisoners
Why should a Bill going through the Nigerian senate concern us? Because it ties in with British efforts to empty UK prisons of foreign national prisoners by sending them home – without their consent. Prisoner transfer agreements with foreign governments are generally seen as benign attempts to bring British prisoners home from excessive sentences in
Northern Ireland detention centre opens
Larne House, the first detention centre in Northern Ireland, has opened. The opening of the first purpose-built immigration detention centre in Northern Ireland this month, is a sad day as it will expand the detention estate once again. But we can resist the simultaneous expansion of our own mental barriers against human equality and freedom,
Mary Dines 1927-2011
We have lost one of our greatest fighters for racial justice and human rights and, because she was so self-effacing, you may not even have heard of her. Apocryphal stories about Mary abound. There was the time when would-be immigrants from the Indian subcontinent in the late 1960s and early 1970s arrived at Heathrow with
Still spooked
Greater emphasis on the Channel project in the revised Prevent strategy gives much cause for concern. In October 2009, the IRR’s report Spooked: how not to prevent violent extremism first drew attention to concerns over Prevent’s gathering of information on individuals thought to be on a pathway to radicalisation. Now an ongoing research project on
Tamils deported, Iraqis win reprieve
The government has been organising deportations of Sri Lankans and Iraqis despite the dangers they face on return – but has met with resistance. On 16 June, just two days after the screening of Channel 4’s shocking exposé of the war crimes against Sri Lanka’s Tamils in ‘Sri Lanka’s killing fields’ and the day after
Kingsley and Habib remembered
Two families will hold demonstrations this weekend following the deaths of loved ones in police custody. The first, on Saturday 2 July will see the family of 29-year-old Kingsley Burrell march in Birmingham voice their concerns over his death days after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act in April. The family will be joined
Fast track to despair
Detention Action has published new research examining the detention of male asylum seekers at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre and the injustices of the ‘outdated’ detained fast track system. The report, Fast Track to Despair: the unnecessary detention of asylum seekers, examines the gap between the conditions of the asylum system when it was established in