Annual Report 2005

Lecture Series

There was tremendous interest for the opening lecture of 2005 when Clive Stafford Smith gave the Drummond Hunter Memorial Lecture in January. The lecture followed publicity about Britons held in Guantanamo bay and there was widespread interest in his work. The Playfair Library was completely filled to the point where those arriving last either had to stand or sit on the floor! Clive was able to recount to an enthusiastic audience his experiences in visiting the US base and providing legal assistance to some of the prisoners held there.

Speaking from only a few notes and a powerpoint presentation (that you can still download from our website) he provided some real insights in to the conditions under which the prisoners are held there. (Naturally he respected the constraints imposed upon him by the US authorities as to what he could reveal about the camp - just as the US authorities respect their international legal obligations in holding people there.)

The Committee was delighted that Frances Crook, Secretary of the Howard League came up from London for Clive's lecture and joined Clive and the Committee along with members of Drummond Hunter's family for a meal afterwards.

On 23rd February after the League's AGM, Niall Kearney of SACRO gave an extremely interesting account of how restorative justice can work in practice based on his experience of the schemes operating in Scotland. (A copy of the full text of his talk is available on the HLS website.)

In March the League was fortunate in being able to persuade Shadd Maruna to make a further trip from Cambridge to Scotland (he had spoken recently at Stirling University) this time to talk to League members about the factors influencing public attitudes to punishment and justice.

In April we returned once more to The Procurators' Hall in Glasgow for the final lecture of the sea son given by HLS Committee member Prof. Jacqueline Tombs speaking on the research she had undertaken for the Scottish Consortium on Crime and Criminal Justice on Sentencing and the prison population in Scotland. As in the previous year the Glasgow based lectures was well attended and now looks set to be an annual fixture.

Autumn series 2006

The opening lecture in the Autumn was given by Joe Sim, Professor of Criminology at Liverpool John Moores University. In an entertaining but informative lecture he considered some of the problems facing criminal justice development in E&W; and the inherent limitations he saw in the approaches adopted by successive administrations in the South.

In November Roger Houchin described his recent work to an audience in Glasgow's Procurators' Library and made a powerful case for causal links between social and economic disadvantage and involvement in crime.

In the final lecture of 2005 Mel Young, one of the founders of the Big Issue in Scotland and co-founder of the Homeless World Cup in 2003 gave a personal account of his experience in mounting the World Cup event and of the manner in which it had changed immeasurably the lives of participants.

Consultations

In January the Scottish Prison Complaints Commissioner, Vaughan Barrett, wrote to a number of organisations in the criminal justice field raising his concerns at the absence of a statutory footing for the Office of Commissioner and seeking support for change. The HLS Committee agreed with his arguments and wrote lending its support for his approach to the Scottish Executive. The Director also wrote to the Convenor of the Justice Committees suggesting that it might invite the Commissioner to give evidence to it following his annual report. This suggestion was adopted by the Justice 2 Committee and the Commissioner met the Committee on 6th December. (You can read his in some respects disturbing evidence on the SP website

In April the SE consulted on changes it proposed on to end automatic early release of sex offenders. The League's reply made clear that we did not believe the evidence supported distinguishing sex offenders in this way and that such a change should be considered by the sentencing commission. We understand that the Commission shared that view but the SE pressed on with the changes regardless in the Management of Offenders Bill.

Also in the Spring The League put forward to the Executive views on the implementation of the proposed ban on smoking in public places and the workplace. The League did not feel it was part of its agenda to offer views on the health aspects of the proposals. These speak largely for themselves. But it did feel that on examination the Smoking Bill's proposals had some undesirable aspects. Principally the League felt that it was unnecessary to criminalise those who smoked in breach of the ban and suggested that other less extreme measures be used to enforce it such as providing those in charge of premises the right to remove smokers or ban those who persistently disobeyed the no smoking rules. Penalties too could be civil rather than criminal - as with parking - for what will, after all, be social misbehaviour rather than criminal activity.

We found other problems with the legislation too. For example it has been drafted in such a way that premises are either covered 24 hours a day or not at all. This quite disregards the way in which premises are used and will impose a smoking ban when it serves no purpose in terms of secondary smoking though it will stop the owner smoking on his own premises when closed to the public or employees.

We also raised these concerns with Lib Dem and SNP members of the Health Committee when the bill was going through the Scottish Parliament but no notice appears to have been taken of them. The Committee appeared to place great weight upon the attitude of certain police and Council officials who suggested that the offence provisions would not be used hastily and the emphasis would be upon warning the managers of premises when smokers were found. Other witnesses appearing at the Committee were less sanguine and thought penalty notices would be issued on the spot to people found smoking illegally. We shall soon see.

In July the SPS consulted on the future of prisons in NE Scotland and in particular of Peterhead. The League put forward views in its response suggesting that it did not see a need for ever more prison building and that estimates for future prisoner numbers were premised on the failure of Executive policies to reduce re-of fending and on assumptions of increasingly punitive behaviour by the courts. We suggested that increased provision for sex offenders might be made in the central belt by specialist units within existing prisons allowing the effectiveness of programmes to be judged more objectively and tackling the problems of 'burn-out' by staff since duties could be rotated.

In the Autumn the Sentencing Commission put out its consultation paper on early release of prisoners. The HLS response (on the SC website) argued for an end to the terminology of 'early release' and a move to procedures where the court would state both the period of custody and the period of supervision to be served. It stressed, however, the importance of ensuring that custodial sentences did not increase as a result of these changes. The Committee was happy to note that in its report to the Executive the Sentencing Commission put forward proposals which largely mirror the HLS views.

Drummond Hunter Memorial Lecture

This lecture is now in its 4th year having been created as tribute to the contribution made by Drummond Hunter over many years to the work of the Howard League in Scotland. The Principal of Edinburgh University kindly agreed to make the Playfair Library available for this lecture free of charge.

For the second annual lecture in January 2005 Clive Stafford Smith, the British/American defence lawyer who has spent many years defending death row clients in the States and has more recently represented Guantanamo detainees spoke to a one of the largest audiences the HLS has seen. In January of 2006 Cathy Jamieson, Minister for Justice at the Scottish Executive spoke to an audience of League Members and invited guests about the 'Challenge of Reform' in the Criminal Justice programme.

Committee Changes

John Crichton has indicated that for personal reasons he does not wish to stand for re-election . Bruce Ritson indicated last year that he wished to stand down from the post of Chairman and John Scott has offered to stand as his successor. David Player has also for personal reasons decided to stand down for the time being and Richard Sparks who was a co-opted Committee member during the year is standing in his place.

Members standing for election to the Committee for 2006

• John Scott (as Chair)
• Laura Irvine (as Treasurer)
• Robin MacEwen (as Director/ Secretary)
• David Affleck
• Clive Fairweather
• Richard Moore
• Laura Piacentini
• Bruce Ritson
• Richard Sparks
• Jacqueline Tombs

Annual Subscriptions

Members are reminded that annual subscriptions fall due in January of each year. Many are paid by standing order (which not surprisingly is our preferred option) so for those of you who pay in this way this message is just to say thank you. A thank you is also due to those who have already renewed their annual subscription by post or bank transfer. If you have still to pay your subscription for 2006 please would you do so soon. Just send a cheque or a standing order mandate to our Treasurer, Laura Irvine at 63 Cavalry Park Drive, Edinburgh EH15 3QG, together with your name and current address (and an e-mail address if you have one) so that we can ensure that our membership records are up to date. If you are reading this on our website you will find a standing order form on the membership page - accessed through the 'join the league' link from other pages.

Subscriptions for 2006 are :
Family - �25;
Single - �15;
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