Editorial Comment
Author | Kevin Wong |
Position | Co-Editor |
Pages | 1-3 |
1
British Journal of Community Justice
©2019 Manchester Metropolitan University
ISSN 1475-0279
Vol. 16 (2) 1–3
EDITORIAL
Kevin Wong Co-Editor
Welcome to this double issue of the British Journal of Community Justice which combines
our new open issue with the second part of our hate crime issue reflecting on the legacy
of the 1999 MacPherson report also known as the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report.
Connectedness: Life in the time of COVID-19
As we enter the final days of 2020, one can’t help but reflect on the profound impact that
COVID-19 has wrought this year on societies and economies across the world. Of c ourse,
pre-existing strains within criminal justice systems - just one part of the c omplex human
ecosystems that we inhabit - have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Back in March Catherine Heard, the Director of the World Prison Research Programme at
Birkbeck, University of L ondon highlighted that “overcrowded and under-resourced
prisons offer the perfect conditions for the rapid spread of any contagious disease,
including COVID-19, within and beyond their confines” i
Reporting by national/state correctional agencies to the International Corrections and
Prisons Association (at time of writing) show that: 159 of 204 agencies reported COVID-19
infections; 121 reported early releases (by way of responding to the pandemic); 61
agencies repor ting inmate deaths; 30 reporting staff deaths; and 43 reported r iots and
disturbances.ii
Probation services have also have been put under strain, exemplified by a striking account
from Salli Dixon a specialist probation officer in Wales adapting to social distancing
conditions; working from home, remotely supervising violent and or sexual offending
individuals.iii
If COVID-19 has taught us anything it is perhaps that we are all more intimately connected
to each other than we might care to think. The actions of each of us, for example, whether
we choose (or not) to observe the Public Health England messaging of “wash hands, cover
face, make space” to minimise viral infection – matters.
In this open issue of the British Journal of Community Justice, a theme that runs through
the diverse papers that we present is that of connectedness – reflections by our authors
on the consequences of the decisions that we make whether as policy makers,
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