In recent years, the ‘refugee crisis’, the Brexit vote, the Windrush scandal, the ‘hostile environment’, conditions in immigration detention centres, and the Covid-19 pandemic have focused attention on the government’s migration policies. It’s common to question the justice of this or that policy, but there remains a widespread assumption that ultimately countries should be free…

Miss Triggs’ situation is familiar to many of us: inaudible, unable to make any impact on those around. When you speak what you say is not valued, while the very same thing said by someone else is heard. Sometimes this is individual – Miss Triggs in particular just does not command her audience. Sometimes it…

Figure 1: Hypatia, a Hellenistic Neoplatonist philosopher. If you ask someone to name some famous philosophers, they will probably give you a list of men: Plato, Descartes, Locke, Kant, Nietzsche, and so on. But there are lots of women doing (great!) philosophy, and there always have been. In recent years, there have been many moves to improve the…

Miranda Fricker: a professor of philosophy The City University of New York (CUNY), whose views we discussed on blame and forgiveness Link Dr Mike Coxhead Email: michael.coxhead@kcl.ac.uk Twitter: @coxheadmike The course at HMP Downview was our first at a women’s prison. Since 2016, Andy West, Andrea Fassolas, and I had delivered our 10-week, introductory philosophy course regularly at Belmarsh. We had also run it…

In 399 BC the philosopher Socrates was executed by the Athenians, for impiety (living an impure life) and corrupting the young. He had a conversation with his friends as he awaited execution in prison – about immortality, about the structure of the universe, about the nature of philosophy. He concludes that he should not be…

"For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command...I am my own god. We are here to…

Across England and Wales, people from minority ethnic backgrounds are breaking through barriers. More students from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds are achieving in school and going to university. There is a growing BAME middle class. Powerful, high-profile institutions, like the House of Commons, are slowly becoming more diverse. Yet how come our justice…

Last week, Maya Oppenheim, Women’s Correspondent of the Independent wrote an article on women with a history of domestic abuse and sexual violence who are ‘trapped’ in the criminal justice system. It is about The View Magazine’s survey and some results we have had come in from the ongoing survey from anonymised voices of women,…

Statistically, Black people are 4.2 times more likely to die from Covid-19. The unequal  impact of the Covid-19 crisis on people from minority ethnic background is highly significant. With individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds being at higher risk, the pandemic has highlighted clear racial inequalities in the criminal justice system (CJS). A lack of information and…

Padlock IV by Gary Mansfield, limited edition print Highlights from the Justice Select Committee's  Evidence Session with the Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland, the CEO of HMPPS Dr Jo Farrar and the CEO of HMCTS, Susan Aclan Hood, on Tuesday 23 June 2020 On 23rd June, the Justice Committee held an evidence session to discuss the impact of…