Hot Topics in Criminal Justice:

Penal Reform in Modern Society

Frances Crook

Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform

Hosted by:

KCL Criminology Society on Wednesday, 10^th February 2010

6pm

King's College London

Room K-1.56 (basement level)

Strand WC2R 2LS

The KCL Criminology Society is pleased to announce that our next event will be a free public lecture presented by Frances Crook, Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform.

Appointed in 1986, she has been responsible for research programmes and campaigns to raise public concern about suicides in prison, the over-use of custody, poor conditions in prison, young people in trouble and mothers in prison. She writes articles for the national media, and frequently does interviews on radio and television news. Under her guidance the charity has secured a contract with the Legal Services Commission to provide legal advice to children in custody and has taken a number of successful judicial reviews that have improved the treatment of children and young people in custody and on release.

Frances Crook was the campaigns co-coordinator at the British Section of Amnesty International from 1980 to 1985. After taking a history degree at Liverpool University she qualified as a teacher, working in secondary schools in Liverpool and London until 1980. She was twice elected as a Labour Councillor for East Finchley in the London Borough of Barnet, serving from 1982 to 1990. She was a Governor of the University of Greenwich for 6 years and chaired the Staff and General Committee, retiring in 2002. She was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in 1997.

Frances Crook was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in 1997 and the Perrie Award in 2005. She was also appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours

The Howard League for Penal Reform:

•  works for a safe society where fewer people are victims of crime;

•  believes that offenders must make amends for what they have done and change their lives

•  believes that community sentences make a person take responsibility and live a law-abiding life in the community

Howard League website

Contact the KCL Criminology Society for more info:  Nicole O'Sullivan

Phone: 0778 917 3818