Justice Focus

Penelope Gibbs has been director of Transform Justice since its foundation and has previously sat as a magistrate in England and run projects for the Prison Reform Trust. In this episode, she discusses two important Transform Justice reports. The first relates to the effectiveness of Virtual Court Hearings: Defendants on video – conveyor belt justice or a revolution in access? The second & rec...

Dr David Rodríguez Goyes, a Colombian lawyer by training is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oslo, where he gained his PhD in Criminology. His main field of research is green criminology, with a focus on bio-piracy. His new book: Southern Green Criminology: A Science to End Ecological Discrimination focuses on the threat the western world poses to the rest of the globe, and how West...

This episode explores Dr David Maguire's recent paper: Vulnerable Prisoner Masculinities in an English Prison . Masculinity is not a fixed thing. People can and do express their masculinity in many different ways and adapt their performance according to the environment. Rather than focus on the dominant or stereotypical forms of masculinity, Omar is back talking with Dr David Maguire about how men...

Men’s prisons – one of the places most associated with a macho identity. In Part 1 of this 2 Part Episode, Omar is joined by Dr David Maguire, an expert in prisoner masculinities, especially the adaptations of those lower in the prison hierarchy. In this Part 1, we’ll be concentrating on Dave’s personal journey and how an inspirational moment with a committed volunteer sparked a journey in educati...

Omar is joined by Dr. Baz Dreisinger, founder of groundbreaking Prison-to-College Pipeline program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and author of the critically acclaimed book ‘Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World’. The chat includes discussion of the issues with thinking about rehabilitation and the importance of restorative justice, reversing...

Omar is joined by Bella Sankey, Director of Justice & Human Rights based NGO Detention Action. They discuss how the UK is a complete outlier for immigration detention, the realities of detention during the pandemic & the long term effects of the demonisation and criminalisation of immigration specific to the UK. @BellaSankey | @DetentionAction | @OmarPKhan | @Justice_Focus | https://www.ju...

Omar is joined by Madhurima Dhanuka, Programme Head of the Prison Reforms Programme for the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) to discuss the realities prisons in India and how the criminal justice system is responding to the pressures of the pandemic. @CHRI_INT | @Mdhanuka17 You can find a copy of CHRI guidance doc: COVID - 19 and Prisons in the Commonwealth: Ensuring an effective respon...

Omar is joined by Dr Adriana Cruz, a federal judge in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to discuss the realities of working from home as a judge during the COVID-19 quarantine. Dr Adriana also talks about combining her work as a judge with her role as a university lecturer and its benefits for students, as well as her specialism on confronting racism and patriarchy in Brazil's judiciary. @OmarPKhan | @Justic...

Omar is joined by Jago Russell, Chief Executive of Fair Trials International to discuss how to ensure fair trials during the COVID-19 pandemic. See Fair Trial's resources linked to the global crisis: https://www.fairtrials.org/covid19justice Follow Jago Russell @JagoRussell  | Fair Trials @fairtrials @OmarPKhan | @Justice_Focus https://www.justicefocus.org/

Omar is joined by Olivia Rope, the Director of Policy and International Advocacy at Penal Reform International to discuss how criminal justice systems across the world have responded to the  COVID-19 pandemic.  See PRI's briefing note on prevention measures in prisons and wider impacts of responses to governments on people in criminal justice systems: Coronavirus: Healthcare and human ri...

Omar is joined by Andrew Neilson, the Director of Campaigns at The Howard League for Penal Reform to discuss recommendations for the UK government during the COVID-19 pandemic.  See the Howard League and Prison Reform Trust call for further early release to protect prisoners, staff and wider public from coronavirus @TheHowardLeague | @neilsonandrew @OmarPKhan | @Justice_Focus https://www.just...

Omar is joined by critical criminologist Dr Roxana Pessoa Cavalcanti to chat about her new book: A Southern Criminology of Violence, Youth and Policing. The study explores the experiences of communities of people living in Brazil's favelas and aims to add to the understanding of the use of violence and control in urban and postcolonial contexts. @RoxyCavalcanti @OmarPKhan | @Justice_Focus https://...

Omar Phoenix Khan introduces Justice Focus - a criminology podcast. Each week, he will interview an expert guest about an exciting aspect of their work and explore what kinds of real-world impact they hope to achieve.