1st April 2015
The report conducted by The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust examines the ongoing tension across Europe regarding the availability of criminal records to employers. This report was aimed at linking the collateral consequences of criminal records with desistance and other social harms.
The report makes a number of recommendations for penal reform with the aim of developing strategies by which the collateral consequences of criminal records are mitigated, all of which include important lessons for Irish Penal Reform. These recommendations for the UK include:
-Further research should be done into the effectiveness of criminal record checks.
-There should be a general prohibition against record checks for recruitment and should only be done so on a case-by-case basis where it is deemed lawful and necessary.
-The UK should learn from how other European countries have been able to have a stronger commitment to 'rehabilitation' laws when applied to jobs.
- A stronger focus on effect systems which 'forgive' to produce a cohesive criminal record disclosing system which has a more direct focus on the rehabilitative ideal.
Read the report in full here
Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.