A Chance to Reimagine Punishment and Penality?

Abstract

The Howard League for Penal Reform has recently been trying to answer a hard question – What is Justice? (see www.howardleague.org/research/ ). This work was underpinned by the notion that how societies respond to crime, and punish lawbreakers, cannot and should not be separated from wider considerations to do with the social and political arrangements of those societies. The relationship between penality and justice is two-way and complex. Justice and the system for delivering (criminal) justice are often criticized but rarely is there a credible, achievable challenge to the status quo proposed: most want to tinker around the edges. Closely allied to the concept of justice is that of punishment and what this means if justice is to be achieved.