What I left behind
Two years after I retired from leading the Howard League, a review of the organisation
It is over two years since I retired from the Howard League for Penal Reform and I thought it might be time to look back and review what I left behind. This is not about the issues, but about the organisation. I wrote extensively about the issues in a blog for the charity which I think is still available and in lots of articles for the mainstream media.
I was chief executive for more than 30 years taking over in 1986 when the charity had no staff, an overdraft of £15,000 and debts. Things were so bad we didn’t have headed paper with the correct address and I couldn’t afford to buy photocopying paper. A volunteer from my previous role at the British Section of Amnesty International came with me to the Howard League employed to do all the admin. Thanks to a handful of expert trustees we worked our socks off to raise funds to do the work.
As an historian by training I kept documents that tell the story of the charity over the years and the papers are deposited in the library at Warwick University so I am not going to relate the history as that is available to the researchers.
I left the charity towards the end of 2021 and there are many things I am proud of and I left a handpicked brilliant and hard working staff, some of whom had been there years and like the proverbial she-elephants, they knew the history and what had been tried and what had and had not worked, and some new and young learners who will contribute to social justice for the rest of their careers.
One of my skills (ok this is a bit of a boast) is that I was good at fundraising. I formed good relationships with individuals and grant giving trusts that meant the Howard League benefitted from sustained and generous funding. I left some £2m in the bank and invested in ethical funds and a building on the border of Islington and Hackney that served as a centre for activities and meetings and a library of resources which was worth around £2.5m and was owned outright and freehold.
I had set up an all party parliamentary group working on women in the penal system which usually had around 10 to 15 MPs and peers attending and had conducted inquiries into arrest and treatment of women in the wider penal system. I had extensive, if sometimes quite tense, relations with politicians at every level.
The awards we gave to local groups and organisations experimenting with new ideas to keep people out of the criminal justice system and prevent crime and support victims gave the charity an amazing national network so we were always learning.
The academic community had been carefully nurtured and our extremely well attended internationally renowned conferences held in Oxford University allowed us to link dynamically with leading thinkers.
I have not kept in close touch with what the charity is doing now and until recently I kept out of public debates about penal issues, despite being contacted regularly by the media. After a reasonable lapse of time I feel it is acceptable to comment on criminal justice issues when moved to do so and when my experience and expertise might be helpful.
I am proud of the state of the charity I left behind and of my legacy. I think the team I brought together made a difference to the lives of people in the criminal justice system and contributed to systemic change. Of course a relatively small charity cannot do everything and such a contribution can only be limited. Nevertheless, I hope my successors have built on the secure funding, expert staff and energy that I left behind to do even more. The criminal justice system is in a poor state and a vibrant and effective charity able to intervene in the public discourse and make things better will continue to be needed for generations to come.
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