NCJ Number
75451
Date Published
1979
Length
42 pages
Annotation
The history of Britain's Advisory Council on the Penal System (ACPS), its advisory predecessors, and related advisory institutions is reviewed, and recommendations are offered for reconstituting the ACPS.
Abstract
Following a historical review of the ACPS, which was dissolved in March 1978, this report discusses a survey of the literature on advisory bodies to delineate those characteristics associated with the quality of advice sought in the ACPS. The work of the ACPS is then appraised with reference to the conclusions drawn from the study of advisory bodies in general. The final section details the substance of legislation for the structure and work of the ACPS in the future. The study concludes that the Government does not currently receive either independent or departmental advice of a sufficient range and quality to render the ACPS unnecessary. Several aspects of penal policy require urgent reappraisal, and systematic evidence on these issues is lacking. For the Home Secretary to frame either new legislation or administrative arrangements in several areas of penal policy, penal policy issues should be referred to an ad hoc or reconstituted penal advisory committee such as the ACPS. However, because an advisory body can never exercise more than a limited independence from the department to which it is unalterably attached, sources of independent advice should be fostered. In particular, penal pressure groups need to create a more sophisticated apparatus for policy formulation, and academicians should establish a center for criminal justice and penal policy or academic working parties on particular issues. Chapter notes and 19 references are provided.