Dr. Jen Hough 🦉

Excellent day today @Uni_Lancashire hosting the Serious Youth Violence Conference with many great partners. Well done Rebecca Hibbin and Jayn (you were missed)

***Call for Contributors for Research Handbook on Global Criminal Justice*** See the attached call for contributions, 250 word abstract and 150 word author bio to be submitted by 30/4/25 - open to academics and practitioners of all levels of experience alike.

For the evening crowd

For the second day running A FIFTH of our courtrooms sit empty. Complainants and defendants are waiting until 2027 and 2028 for trial. What’s the excuse? Where are the lawyers? Where are the judges? Where’s the funding? And HOW can the problem possibly be juries.

THIS 👇👇

Serious Youth Violence Training/Research Event 2024 @YouthEndowFund presenting which sectors are key in preventing SYV @UCLanCJP

A very worrying decision not to properly fund the very bedrock of a democratic society - if there can be no effective administration of the law, what is there? #justice #law #Budget2024

@DrIanTurner 🤣🤣🤣

@Agent_Jen_ And when I say murder, I must resist the urge to say it in a scouse accent, as if it's a French expletive. 😅

In my #LW1984 Criminal Law workshop today I'm doing murder (and voluntary manslaughter). It's also Halloween. Do I take in some Halloween props? 😜🎃🦇

Mary Prior KC chair of the Criminal Bar Association said: “Cuts in sitting days may save some limited amount of money from one budget but it will increase costs in others. The true cost is that people stop believing in justice. People may well ask, what is the point of calling the police to report a crime if it takes between 4 and 6 years for the trial to be heard.” Sunday Express front page #amp-readmore-target" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">express.co.uk/news/uk/196115…

A decision to cap crown court sitting days must be reversed if delays blighting trials are to be tackled, the victims’ commissioner has warned. @thetimes @TimesLaw via @legalhackette “Baroness Newlove’s plea comes after The Times revealed last week that the justice secretary rejected a request from the lady chief justice to fund 5,500 more sitting days to enable the crown courts to run at full capacity. Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill had told Shabana Mahmood that the additional figure was the minimum required to reduce the cases waiting to be heard, which is expected to hit 80,000 next year. After it emerged that the Ministry of Justice under the previous government planned to cut crown court sitting days by 2 per cent to 106,000 in June, ministers agreed to fund an additional 500 days — which still amounts to a cut. But, in a letter seen by The Times, it emerged that Carr had intervened and been in discussions with Mahmood “in the hope of securing additional funding and [avoiding] the need for cancellations” of trials. Details of the row between the senior judiciary and ministers emerged in a letter to top judges at crown courts around the country. The letter, from Lords Justice Edis and Green, the previous and present senior presiding judges of the crown courts, warned that “the consequence … is that a very large number of trials and other hearings that are scheduled to be heard will now have to be rescheduled … probably for a lengthy period”. Judges and barristers condemned the decision to save money over ensuring timely trials, predicting that it will result in added delays in rape trials by more than two years. Sitting judges suggested that the move will result in the release of potentially “dangerous offenders” who have been remanded to prison pending trials once the custody time limit of six months has been reached. Newlove tells The Times that reducing sitting days “may save money in one area”, but “it will inevitably strain other parts” adding to the “ongoing crisis” in the criminal justice system. Stressing the “human cost” for victims who are left “in limbo” and already “waiting far too long for their day in court”, the commissioner warns that more victims will be denied justice as a result of delays to trials. “As time passes, memories fade and victims’ resolve weakens — leading some to walk away and the risk of guilty offenders going free,” she says, urging the government to “reconsider the decision to limit court sitting days” and allow the courts to run at full capacity. Mark Lucraft KC, the recorder of London and the most senior judge at the Old Bailey, emphasises the importance of hearing criminal cases “as speedily as possible”, particularly those involving young men. In a video on the judiciary’s website, Lucraft revealed that the Old Bailey has been running 14 trial courts in a bid to alleviate the “huge pressure” to hear cases quickly and reduce the trial backlog. But his approach could be scuppered by the reduction in court sitting days. Accepting that the myriad problems across the justice system result from decades of underfunding, many criminal lawyers are concerned by the lack of any plan from the Labour government for change or investment. Citing the government’s “failure to show it is serious about tackling the crisis in our criminal justice system” the Law Society, the body representing solicitors in England and Wales, has published guidance asking firms to consider scaling back or stopping work on publicly funded criminal cases. Expressing the view of many others, Daniel Bonich, president of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, says: “We’ve not seen any sense yet that the appalling backlog of cases is a priority for this government.” thetimes.com/article/4cf0ff…

@DrIanTurner @NatalieAlk @RoutledgeLaw 🤗👏👏

Phew, a milestone, of sorts: today I completed a first draft of my book on human rights, for @RoutledgeLaw. It is a critical legal defence of rights grounded in reciprocal duties and responsibilities and solidarity.

@criminographer @LucyGoBag You are genuinely the strongest person I know. Forever in my thoughts - love to you all 💙💗

It's the start of #BabyLossAwarenessWeek. We miss our beautiful 2 terribly.The grief is loud, quiet, acute, dull, terrifying, consuming & everything in between.Our time stands still & also races on. We grieve for what they were & what they could have been. Love to all grieving. X

Some really worthwhile research for #3rdSectorOrgs wanting to contribute to their own evaluations & having the skills to do so. If you work in the 3rd Sector, please share & complete our survey so we can understand how best to support the important work that you do 👍 #UCLanCJP

More than £35,000 has been raised after the death of a two-year-old Lancaster girl just three years after her brother died of the same rare condition. beyondradio.co.uk/news/local-new…

@criminographer Please considering donating or sharing on this link 💔🙏 - justgiving.com/crowdfunding/e…

We are so grateful for the messages, shares, kind donations to the fundraiser. I painted Isabelle's nails yesterday and told her how loved she is by everyone near and far. We are bereft, but lifted by you all celebrating her life with us and holding us in our pain x

@BBCNews @criminographer Can we add the link to the page please @BBCNews - justgiving.com/crowdfunding/e…

Girl, 2, dies from same rare disorder as brother bbc.in/3MWrftq

@itvnews @criminographer Can we add the link to the page please @itvnews - justgiving.com/crowdfunding/e…

Toddler dies from same rare condition as brother #Echobox=1727097514" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">itv.com/news/granada/2…

@criminographer Please help to support Emily and family even just by sharing if you can - justgiving.com/crowdfunding/e… 🙏💔

We continue to just be so grateful for the support and a bit embarrassed by the amount of donations to the go fund me in honour of our girl. Thank you so much for your generosity. We are in so much pain but trying to channel her beautiful energy to make all the arrangements. X

A significant issue which needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency…