CCR Seminar Series: Citizenship and democratic accountability in the criminal justice system

Event Title: CCR Seminar Series: Citizenship and democratic accountability in the criminal justice system

Date: Wednesday 20 November 2024

Time: 1pm - 3.30pm

Location: Hybrid

• On campus: Moot Court, Bartolomé House

• Online: Google Meet

The Centre for Criminological Research is hosting a series of seminars and events centred around the theme of ‘Accountability’. Our second event on Wednesday 20 November will be a hybrid panel discussion considering citizenship and democratic accountability in the criminal justice system. Lunch will be served at 1pm prior to the event outside the Moot Court, with the speaker session starting at 1.30pm. 

This will be a seminar with three speakers, chaired by Professor Alex Stevens. The speakers will be: Mark Blake (Criminal Justice Alliance) on CJA's collaborative super complaint on Section 60 stops and searches; and Penelope Gibbs (Transform Justice) on their CourtWatch project.

There are multiple options for the tickets of this event. Please ensure you have selected the ticket with the attendance you would prefer, and let Emily Rose Hay (e.r.hay@sheffield.ac.uk) know if there are any dietary requirements. A link will be provided on the day of the event to all those who have registered to attend virtually. On-campus ticket holders should be prepared to show their ticket on arrival at the event.

For further information, please contact either of the event coordinators, Professor Alex Stevens or Dr Emily Rose Hay.

Speaker info:

Mark Blake: Beyond Reason - The Totemic Nature of police use of force in UK justice policy, the retreat from Peelian policing principles and the intersection with race

A personal perspective of working on a Super-complaint to repeal section 60 police powers of stop and search and its wider implications for UK policing, justice, and social policy.

Bio: Mark Blake is the Policy Manager at the Criminal Justice Alliance. The Criminal Justice Alliance is a membership organisation with over 200 civil society organisations and 30 plus academic members delivering services, advocating, researching, and pressing for policy change to make the justice system, fairer and more effective. He has more than 30 years’ of experience working within civil society. The CJA led a Super-complaint to repeal Section 60 police powers of stop and search due to their propensity to exasperate racial disparities. You can download the HMICFRS report, the CJA response and some interviews with young people sharing the impact of these powers on their lives here.

Penelope Gibbs: Eyes on the court - how the CourtWatch project introduced community scrutiny to magistrates' courts

Most criminal cases go through the magistrates' courts. The judges there can decide guilt or innocence, and impose imprisonment pre and post trial. The courts are technically open to anyone to watch practically any hearing. But few people know they have that right so public galleries are often empty. What happens in magistrates' courts is not recorded so if no-one observes it is practically impossible to find out what happened. Transform Justice wanted to support mass scrutiny of the courts. So we openly recruited people to observe them and record what they saw. We published an analysis of their observations of three London magistrates' courts - including the invisible barriers to entry into the courts, the inability to hear what was going on and the inefficiency of the process.

Bio: Penelope Gibbs worked in radio production and at the BBC before being inspired to influence social change in the third sector. She set up the Voluntary Action Media Unit at TimeBank before joining the Prison Reform Trust to run the Out of Trouble – a five year campaign to reduce child and youth imprisonment. Under her watch the number of children (under 18 year olds) in prison in the UK fell by a third. Penelope also sat as a magistrate. She set up Transform Justice in 2012. In her spare time she enjoys listening to political podcasts and hiking.

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