Stories and reflections from staff and students of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research
By Nicola Ceesay *This blog was originally published by Scotland in Lockdown Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak I have worked within the residential childcare sector alongside a devoted staff team to provide care and support for a small group of young people. Children and young people are placed in residential care when there … Continue reading Covid & care experienced young people
By Ross Gibson As a youth justice social worker in Glasgow I worked with children within, or on the fringes of, secure care. They experienced such a high risk of harm that their lives, or lives of those around them, were frequently in danger. This often included acts of violence, absconding, drug abuse and other … Continue reading Giving Voice to Children in Secure Care
Effects on those who deliver services to justice involved populations By Prof Michele Burman, Prof Robin A. Robinson and Dr Annie Crowley Although largely out of government and media frames of ‘essential workers’, and within a wider context of rapidly diminishing resources and precarious funding, many community-based voluntary organisations working with criminal justice-involved groups are … Continue reading Working Under Lockdown
By Professor Laura Piacentini, University of Strathclyde On hearing the Scottish government announcement, made on the 18th of March, that schools in Scotland would close indefinitely from the 20th of March, and that we would then enter a period of lockdown because of the epic human catastrophe called Covid-19, I entered a period of what … Continue reading Living Under Covid-19
Domestic abuse and sexual violence: the responses and realities provoked by COVID-19 By Dr Oona Brooks-Hay, Prof Michele Burman & Dr Lisa Bradley, University of Glasgow The new social reality imposed by COVID-19 brings particular concerns for women and children living with domestic abuse and sexual violence, and for the support services that they rely … Continue reading Gender Based Violence in a Pandemic
By Prof Fergus McNeill, University of Glasgow With prisons described by epidemiologists as incubators of disease, it is obvious and entirely right that much of the focus of criminologists and other criminal justice activists in recent weeks has been on the urgent need to decarcerate. The challenges and opportunities for social work services have also … Continue reading Penal supervision in a pandemic
By Dr Liz Aston, Edinburgh Napier University Dramatic changes to people’s lives globally, resulting from COVID-19, are having an impact on crime and the criminal justice system (CJS). As the police are the gatekeepers to the CJS it is important to consider the implications for policing. These sweeping societal changes shed light on a number … Continue reading Covid-19 Implications for Policing
By Anonymous Prisoner 23 March 2020: A week ago when people in Italy were dying and Boris was talking about herd immunity, in prison we were business as usual. “What a larf this corona lark is” – idiots sneaking up on each other and giving people surprise hugs and shaking every hand they could grab… … Continue reading On the inside: A prisoner speaks about Covid-19
By Dr Kirsty Deacon, University of Strathclyde There are currently 7,339 people in prison in Scotland. Almost all will have family members, whether more traditional nuclear family, wider extended family, or non-blood relations who fulfil this role. While the current lockdown is not comparable to serving a prison sentence, it does, perhaps, give us some … Continue reading On the Outside: Families of Prisoners and Covid-19
