For the first time in France, on Wednesday 24 June 2015, the Court of Appeal in Paris held the French State responsible for police action in carrying out identity checks that were held to be discriminatory and ordered it to pay €1,500 in compensation to five individuals.

Jackie Hodgson and Laurène Soubise have written a blog post about 'Written records, police stops and judicial review' in France, comparing the French situation with police checks in England and Wales.

The CJC has been in the news on several occasions this week. Our report on Prisoners' Penfriends work was mentioned on Phys.Org ('Study reveals potential value of prison pen pal scheme to rehabilitation of offenders') on 23 June and by ITV News ('Prison pen pal scheme aids the rehabilitation of convicted offenders') on 24 June. Then on Thursday 25 June, Jackie Hodgson was interviewed on the BBC Coventry & Warwickshire's breakfast show to present the report. You can listen again to Jackie's interview at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02sz0n0 (from 01:08:00). The report was launched in the House of Lords on the same day: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/research/centres/cjc/impact/policy/

This week, Ana Aliverti is organising a series of blog posts on Migration, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice on the blog Border Criminologies. This themed week’s blogs will explore different aspects of the intersections between migration, criminal law, and criminal justice.

As social institutions are being shaped by unprecedented levels of human movement and the attendant set of controls, criminal justice systems in many developed countries are required to deal with a fast-changing population. This drastic demographic change unsettles the basic premises under which the criminal law and the criminal justice system functions. Perhaps the most important assumption is that the mandates of the criminal law chiefly address the members of a political community (their citizens) who at least in principle have a say in law-making and a duty to abide by it. State punishment is equally underpinned by such assumption. Yet, on a daily basis, the criminal courts are increasingly called to pass judgments on individuals who are excluded from political participation and are deemed to be territorially pushed out through the operation of stringent deportation regimes.

Together, the contributions for this themed week reflect on some of the most troubling aspects of the exclusionary edge of citizenship and its relevance to understanding the contemporary contours of punitive power.

You can find the first installment of the week, a post by Ana, here: http://bordercriminologies.law.ox.ac.uk/crime-justice-and-migration/

Criminal Justice Centre director Professor Jackie Hodgson and CJC researcher Juliet Horne have recently published their research report ‘Imagining more than just a prisoner: The work of Prisoners’ Penfriends’. The research examined the work of Prisoners’ Penfriends a small charitable organisation that facilitates and supervises letter-writing between prisoners and trained volunteers. Based on interviews and questionnaires with prisoners and volunteers, the report examines the workings of the scheme and concludes that it is likely to improve prisoner well-being and to raise prisoners’ chances of successful rehabilitation. The research has already attracted the attention of significant policymakers within the Ministry of Justice. Building on this interest, the research report will be formally launched to an audience of policymakers and practitioners in the House of Lords on Thursday 25th June. Speakers at the event include representatives from Prisoners’ Penfriends, Juliet Lyon of the Prison Reform Trust, Lynn Saunders Governor of HMP Whatton and Professor Hodgson.

The full report is available here: Prisoners' Penfriends Report

Dr Ana Aliverti has been awarded the British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award (BARSEA).

The BARSEA aims at providing an opportunity for early career researchers who have established their academic credentials as leaders in their field to enhance their skills and career development through playing a leading role in engaging others through the organisation of engagement events.

Ana is the co-host and leading organiser of a two-day international workshop entitled ‘Criminal adjudication in the age of migration’ to take place in March 2016 at the University of Oxford. This workshop will bring together leading international scholars and early career researchers from various countries, doctoral students, and British policy makers and practitioners to shed light on the relevance of citizenship and immigration status in criminal justice decision-making.

The theme of the workshop is associated to Ana’s current research project, funded by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust, which investigates the impact of immigration status and citizenship on the treatment of defendants before the criminal justice system.