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Rough Justice? Do We Have the Criminal Justice System We Deserve?

Thursday 17 October 2024, 7:30pm

This event, held during national Prisons Week (13 to 19 October), reflected the latest book by Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC: Rough Justice: Do We Have the Law We Deserve? The aim was to reflect on a number of interrelated questions, in particular: what is justice, and to what extent is justice dispensed by the UK’s criminal justice system and processes? The analysis of these questions in Joseph’s book, which magnifies the role of courts, is framed around descriptions of four trials informed by her career as a judge.

Speakers were also invited to reflect upon the experience of women in criminal justice processes and the social dimension of crime (i.e. the challenge of addressing the ‘causes of crime’), including the potential role of education in both preventing crime and reducing recidivism.

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Read more about the speakers

Wendy Joseph KC

Wendy Joseph KC retired from a distinguished legal career in 2022, including a decade as a judge at the Old Bailey sitting on criminal cases. Joining the Old Bailey in 2012, Wendy was the only woman amongst sixteen judges and only the third woman ever to hold a permanent position there. 

She has also served as a Diversity and Community Relations Judge, working to promote understanding between the judiciary and society, and as a mentor for young people. Wendy’s first book, Unlawful Killings, published in 2021, was a Sunday Times Best Seller and won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger award for non-fiction. In 2024, she published a new book, Rough Justice: Do We Have the Law We Deserve?

Kate O-Brien

Kate O’Brien is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Durham University and Co-Director of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Programme. For the last ten years, she has delivered undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at HMP Durham, HMP Frankland and HMP Low Newton, as well as directing Durham University’s MSc programme in Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Kate has particular expertise in the field of women and imprisonment and has worked on funded projects examining the experience of female prisoners with histories of sexual violence and abuse, and those separated from their children. Her publications include a co-authored volume, Criminal Women: Gender Matters (Bristol University Press, 2022).

John Podmore

John Podmore is an international expert on corruption in prisons, currently working with the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. A former prison governor (of HMP Belmarsh, HMP Brixton and HMP Swaleside) and prison inspector, he is the author of Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Why Britain’s Prisons are Failing (Biteback, 2012). John has also held an honorary professorship at Durham University.

Find out more about the Durham Cathedral Institute

Durham Cathedral Institute

The Durham Cathedral Institute facilitates public discussions of current affairs and issues affecting the North East of England.
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