Committee’s Report on the year

Index

2003 has been another successful year for the Howard League in Scotland marred only by the sad death in October of Gillian Bishop our Secretary and Director. (see tribute to Gillian)

During the Spring of 2003 the League held a series of lectures on the broad theme of regulating the criminal justice system. The first was delivered by Dr. Jim McManus of the Department of Law, Dundee University, and focused on "making criminal justice more effective".

At our Annual General Meeting in February Jamie Malcolm, a commissioner with the Mental Welfare Commission, spoke about "Mentally Disordered Offenders and the Mental Health System". The health, and particularly mental health, of offenders has remained a concern throughout the year.

Finally, Clive Fairweather, who had recently left his post as H.M. Chief Inspector of Prisons in Scotland, reflected on this role in a talk challengingly entitled "Prison Inspectors: Rottweiler or Collie?". In January the Howard League participated in a joint seminar with the Sutherland Trust entitled "Rethinking the Criminal Justice System - Psychodynamic Perspectives". It was held in memory of Drummond Hunter who had been a key figure in both bodies. The seminar was chaired by Lord Bonomy and the topic was introduced by two forensic psychiatrists: Dr. John Crichton from Edinburgh and Dr. Rob Hale of the Portman Clinic in London. The debate illustrated the value of a psychodynamic understanding of the processes at work throughout the criminal justice system and pointed the way to further exploration of this theme. Future joint seminars of this kind are planned.

Sadly, in April, Gillian Bishop decided that she could no longer continue her work for the League. Several organisations including SACRO, APEX and SASD provided help at that time in support of the League’s work and Professor Tombs took on the task of Secretary while a successor to Gillian was sought. In May, Robin MacEwen, a League member, offered his services and was co-opted on to the Executive Committee in the role of Secretary and Director.

During the summer the Committee decided that in the hope of promoting greater public debate and understanding the League’s programme of Autumn lectures would focus on the Executive’s proposals for a single agency responsible for carrying out the sentences of the criminal courts. Professor Andrew Coyle gave the first lecture in October drawing attention to the stark differences in how different countries used imprisonment and the choices facing Scotland in its attitude to incarceration. Cedric Fullwood addressed the League in November drawing upon his experience of the many changes and developments in the youth justice system in England & Wales. On a philosophical note the final lecture of the year by Professor Antony Duff argued that punishment was an appropriate element in a system of restorative justice.

The summer also saw the creation of the a web site for the League with the aim of providing League members and other interested members of the public with continuing up to date information on League and associated events. In addition to basic information about the League the web pages also allow copies of the full text of lectures given by our speakers to be downloaded. This appears to be a welcome innovation as several members and others have written to express their thanks at being able to access talks given at times when they had been unable to attend.

Lecture Times

The Autumn lectures were all held at the later time of 6.30pm, partly because of limited availability of the law lecture room in Old College, Edinburgh and partly to attract those who found it difficult to reach lectures at 5.30pm. The general impression we have from comments received, however is that 6.30pm is moving too far back and we are therefore moving to a new time of 6.00pm for the Spring series in 2004 (with the exception of the AGM itself which will be held at 5.30pm prior to Dr Piacentini’s lecture at 6.00pm).

Other changes in the organisation have been made to reduce the administrative overheads which can sometimes be heavy for an organisation run on entirely voluntary effort. Most of the mailings to members have now been transferred from post to e-mail. This was a time consuming task initially but we expect that electronic mailing lists can be maintained at relatively low cost and without doubt represent the fastest and easiest way to keep in touch with members and to communicate to the media and other interested groups. We don’t intend to bombard members with e-mails but we can now issue reminders for each lecture during the preceding week.

Advertising

The Autumn lectures appeared to be very much appreciated by those who attended (and by some others who read them from the web site) though numbers were not as high as the Committee expected. It is hoped that the greater ‘reach’ of email and the issue of reminders will maintain or increase numbers for future lectures. The Committee also decided to advertise some of the lectures using some of the grant money obtained in support of the lecture series from The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. (The first Drummond Hunter Memorial lecture given by Baroness Vivien Stern was advertised in the Scotsman and the Big Issue as part of this initiative.)

Committee Changes

In October the Committee were very sad to learn of the death of Gillian Bishop. Gillian had given a great deal to the Howard League and a tribute by the Chairman has been posted on a separate web page. (see tribute to Gillian)

Drummond Hunter Memorial Lecture

Amendment of the League’s Constitution