How can we make early release and alternatives to prison safer?
Professor Alex Sutherland
Expert Comment from DSPI’s Professor Alex Sutherland
As major criminal justice reforms are being put in place, Professor Alex Sutherland, Professor in Practice Criminology & Public Policy at DSPI, writes for University of Oxford exploring the options for making early release and alternatives to prison safer.
In his Expert Comment, Professor Sutherland discusses the challenges of balancing public safety through measures such as risk assessments within the context of prison overcrowding and limited resources, and argues there is a "genuine opportunity" to assess the effectiveness of the upcoming changes and how they can be informed by research.
Professor Sutherland'There can never be ‘zero risk’ when it comes to releasing people from prison or placing them on community supervision, but all of this raises questions about how to enact these changes while balancing public safety.'