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Last broadcast on Mon, 23 Jan 2012, 21:30 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Andrew Marr explores the idea of Justice on Start the Week. In a satire on the International Criminal Tribunal, the playwright Simon Stephens, asks how far such a court can deal with perpetrators of terrible crimes, when the accused neither recognises its authority, or shares its morality. Closer to home John Podmore looks back at 25 years as a prison governor and inspector, in a damning indictment on Britain's prison service. The criminologist Mike Hough asks why people obey the law, and questions whether the threat of punishment is ever a deterrent. And the director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti defends the right to civil liberties and freedom of speech, even of those many may consider to be unpalatable.
Producer: Natalia Fernandez.
JOHN PODMORE
In November last year it was announced that the prison population of England and Wales had hit an all-time high of 87,749. We are “a nation of incarcerators”, according to the former prison governor John Podmore. But he argues that the prison service is failing: three-quarters of those who are released go on to reoffend and corruption is allegedly rife. Podmore argues that our focus should not be on repeatedly locking people up, but on rehabilitation and the creation of a strong support network, so former inmates stand a chance of reintegration into the community. But what hope is there for an improved system when costs are being cut and will the increasing privatisation of prisons help or hinder any potential improvements?
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Why Britain’s Prisons are Failing is published by Biteback Publishing.
MIKE HOUGH
Why do people obey the law? What can we do to stop a repeat of last summer’s riots? Professor Mike Hough has been analysing the responses from over 40,000 people across Europe to questions about law, order and justice. He thinks the results show that we need to take a new approach to policing and sentencing. Forcing people to obey the law does not work, he argues, and in the long term makes them less likely to be law-abiding. His research has found that people obey laws when they believe the system is fair and respect the people who enforce them. But how do we do this? And what lessons can we learn from the rest of Europe about how to bolster the rule of law?
SIMON STEPHENS
‘Can I ask you, is the building this big to keep me inside, or is it this big to show everybody how hard you are trying to keep me inside? Is the architecture for me or is it for all the people gathering outside the front gates?’
The dictator Ubu Roi, from Jarry’s 1896 play, challenges the International Criminal Court as he faces charges of Crimes against Humanity. In The Trial of Ubu, the playwright Simon Stephens asks whether a hearing in The Hague can bring global justice. In this savage comedy he explores how a court deals with defendants who are not only opposed to the morality of law, but exist in a different moral dimension altogether.
The Trial of Ubu is on at the Hampstead Theatre in London until 25 February.
SHAMI CHAKRABARTI
Respect for human rights lies at the very heart of what constitutes a civil, just and democratic society. The pressure group Liberty has been campaigning to uphold civil liberties and human rights in the UK since its inception in 1934. Shami Chakrabarti has been its director for nearly a decade, and has locked horns with the Government on issues from the Human Rights Act to ID cards. In Britain free speech is a basic right, but when it comes to imposing ‘control’ orders on terrorist subjects, or trying murder suspects for a crime they have already been cleared of committing, what does liberty really mean in the UK today?
Broadcasts
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Mon 23 Jan 201209:00
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Mon 23 Jan 201221:30
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