Griffins People
Griffins Society Staff
Dr Peter Dunn, Director
Lisa Jenner, Office Manager
Griffins Society Council
Roma Hooper, Chair
Christina McComb, Hon. Treasurer
Jackie Lowthian
Liz Dibb
Professor Paul Rock
Wendy Cranmer
Sally Wentworth-James
Rawle Beckles
Dr Michael Shiner
Lucy Forde
Rebecca Brown
Griffins Society Patrons
Angela Camber
Professor Frances Heidensohn
Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC
Special Advisor to the Griffins Society Research Fellowships Programme
Griffins Society Staff
Dr Peter Dunn took over from Dr Kate Steward as Director of the Society in January 2009. Peter qualified as a probation officer in 1984 with a Masters in Social Work from the London School of Economics. He worked as a probation officer in London, Bristol, and Reading; becoming a senior probation officer in 1993. He managed a probation hostel for four years, then a prison through-care and resettlement team. In 1999 Peter was appointed Policy Advisor with the Youth Justice Board where he was responsible for producing the first National Standards for Youth Justice. During this time he worked closely with the Prison Service to promote child-centred regimes in the juvenile secure estate.
In 2001 Peter went to work for Victim Support and in the following year he became Head of Research and Development at Victim Support’s National Office. Peter established Victim Support’s research strategy, and he set up research partnerships with other charities. His team were also responsible for disseminating all Victim Support’s national performance management data, for service standards and practice guidance, and for facilitating the work of Victim Support’s Diversity Council.
Peter left Victim Support in 2007 to concentrate on his PhD research at the London School of Economics, which he completed in June 2010. His research is a sociological study of gay men's experiences of hate crime and its policing. Peter's particular research interests include the impact of victimisation, hate crime, masculinities, and women offenders.
Until 2009 Peter was a member of the Home Office Race for Justice Advisory Group.
Peter is Co-chair of Galop (London’s Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community safety charity); and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Email: peter@thegriffinssociety.org
Griffins Society Council
Roma Hooper was appointed Chair of the Griffins Society in 2008. She became involved with the voluntary sector in 1979 when she joined Contact a Family. In 1987 she established Hooper McMillan, a charity consultancy working with small grass roots organisations. Between 1992 and 2001, Roma obtained a degree in English and Sociology and an MSc in Criminal Justice Policy, as well as becoming involved with Feltham Young Offenders as a volunteer. She co-founded the UK’s first prison radio station, Radio Feltham, and is the chair and founder of the Prison Radio Association, providing radio skills training through prisons in the UK. Roma is vice-chair of the Foundation Training Company, trustee of Trailblazers, a mentoring scheme for young offenders, Roma was appointed Feltham’s first voluntary sector co-ordinator in 2001. She is a director of Hooper Walker, one of the first Community Interest Companies to be set up in the UK, providing a specialist service to both the Prison Service and the Voluntary Sector. In 2008 Roma established Make Justice Work, a new media campaign set up to raise public awareness of the costliness and futility of giving low level offenders short custodial sentences.
Christina McComb, Treasurer, has a background in venture capital and private equity investment and fund management. Between 2003-2006, she was a director of the Shareholder Executive, an agency established by the Cabinet Office to manage the Government’s interests in public owned enterprises. She is currently Head of Equity and Commercialisation at Partnerships UK Plc.
Jackie Lowthian has worked for Nacro since 1987. Jackie has long been concerned with issues around gender inequality and has managed Nacro's services for women prisoners since 1989. She ran Nacro's Women Prisoners' Resource Centre, a resettlement advice project for women in custody, for ten years and has developed and delivered a number of other projects aimed at supporting women during custody and after release. More recently, Jackie has worked in partnership with the Prison Service on policy for women, and since 1999, she has focused on improving resettlement opportunities for women. Much of this work has involved promoting changes to tackle homelessness amongst women leaving prison. She has assisted the Prison Service with the creation of a National Resettlement Strategy for Women and is working with women's prisons nationally to help implement this strategy. In June 2001 Jackie chaired an international conference, New Responses to Women Who Break the Law. A book of the conference proceedings was published (edited by Professor Pat Carlen) and Jackie is one of ten contributors. She has written a number of articles on the subject of women's imprisonment, published in various professional journals, and recently wrote and presented Nacro's submission to the Commission on Women and Criminal Justice. In September 2003 Jackie gave a paper on The Detention and Criminalisation of Women Asylum Seekers and Refugees at an international conference in Bilbao, Women, Crime and Globalisation. Jackie is a member of the Fawcett Society Gender and Justice Policy Network and a lay member of HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate.
Liz Dibb has a background in education and training, having worked as a teacher and education adviser for 12 years in the UK and 5 years in Central Europe, training teachers and producing educational resource packs. She has had considerable experience of working in the voluntary sector, mostly as a freelance consultant, having worked in the HIV/AIDS field for 10 years, and for the past 6 years in the Criminal Justice field. Liz has an MSc in Strategic Training and Development, with a dissertation on the effect on families and children of having a family member in prison. She then worked as a consultant with Action for Prisoners’ Families on a research project with young people and on a school’s project. Liz now works as a training consultant for Clinks and was the co-author, with Roma Hooper, of ‘Volunteering in Prison’; and now runs ‘train the trainers’ courses based on the pack. She and Roma are currently developing a new pack ‘Volunteering with Offenders in the Community’. Liz is also a volunteer at HMP & YOI Feltham.
Professor Paul Rock is Emeritus Professor of Social Institutions at the London School of Economics (LSE). He took his first degree at the LSE and then a D.Phil. at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Ministry of the Solicitor General of Canada; a Visiting Professor at a number of Canadian, Australian and American universities; a Fellow of the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California; and a resident at the Rockefeller Foundation Centre at the Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
His interests focus on the development of criminal justice policies, particularly for victims of crime, but he has also published articles on criminological theory and the history of crime. His most recent books include The Social World of an English Crown Court (1993, Clarendon Press); Reconstructing a Women's Prison (1996, Clarendon Press); After Homicide: Practical and Political Responses to Bereavement (1998, Clarendon Press); (with David Downes) Understanding Deviance (fifth edition 2003, Oxford University Press); and Constructing Victims' Rights (September 2004, Clarendon Press).
Wendy became a Trustee of the Griffins Society in 2006 and she has worked with offenders, mainly women, for seven years. She was released from HMP Holloway where she served a five year prison sentence in 2001. She had been the first person to be released from there on temporary release on licence (ROTL) to go out to work while still serving her sentence. Since her release she has worked with women offenders for both Nacro and St Giles Trust and in 2005 she became a 'key holder' in HMP Holloway where she worked on the Exodus Project supporting women serving one year or less. She then secured the post of Community Integration Manager at Holloway - the very prison in which she served her sentence. Since then Wendy has worked with street based sex workers for Toynbee Hall and she now manages a probation service project for BeOnsite, helping offenders obtain work in the construction industry.
Wendy has spoken often about women in the criminal justice and has written for publications about prisoners. As well as her work with The Griffins Society, Wendy is also a Trustee of Forensic Therapies who offer counselling to male and female prisoners. She has much insight into issues affecting women in the criminal justice system and she draws on her experience of being in prison in her work with the voluntary sector and criminal justice system agencies.
Sally Wentworth-James has been working for Nacro (the crime reduction charity) for the last 10 years, in a variety of service delivery, policy and development roles. She has managed projects focusing on aspects of education, resettlement, community re- integration and awareness raising. Over the most recent years she has completed several external secondments including the development of the South East ROM VCS and Faith Alliance, development of the Isle of Sheppey prison cluster Reducing Re Offending and Community Integration plan, development of a framework and specification for a national through the gate mentoring and support project for short sentenced prisoners as well as the development of the private/voluntary sector bid submission to build and operate two new prisons. Currently she is a Regional Resettlement Manager with a national remit for “special interest” offender groups namely elderly and ex Armed Services offenders.
She has completed a MA in Education, focusing on the links between ex offender employability, aspirations and education. Sally has had articles produced including one on older offenders in the Dictionary of Probation and Offender Management She has produced training and resource packs on the social and welfare needs of elderly prisoners as well as the resettlement issues of prisoners who have served in the armed forces. Finally she has developed and produced several evaluations of resettlement activities across prisons and probation as well as developing a recent nacro wide service user consultation.
Dr Mike Shiner graduated in history from the University of Leicester in 1989 and completed a Masters degree in Social Research Methods at the University of Surrey two years later. He gained his PhD from the London School of Economics. He is currently employed as senior lecturer in the Social Policy Department. Prior to this he worked at the Public Policy Research Unit at Goldsmiths College, and the Policy Studies Institute.
Michel has expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research methods and he has worked on a diverse range of projects, although his recent work has been concentrated in the fields of youth studies, criminology, and socio-legal studies. He is (joint) author of numerous articles and reports as well as three books: Drug Use and Social Change; The Distortion of History; Dealing with Disaffection: Young People, Mentoring and Social Inclusion and Teenage Kicks? Young People and Alcohol.
Lucy works for Inside Time, the national newspaper for prisoners. She considers this to be the best job she has ever had! Since spending time in prison, where she taught literacy, ESOL, and computers (having started off as a classroom assistant) Lucy is very concerned about the lack of resettlement for so many prisoners. Becoming a Council member with the Griffins Society is very important to Lucy and she is working to help the Society and Inside Time support each other in improving women's resettlement.
Lucy is about to embark on some public speaking engagements about prison life, particularly from a female point of view, to change some of the public perspectives about the criminal justice system. As well as her involvement in the Society's Council, Lucy is also a Street Pastor in Portsmouth and a Samaritan.
Griffins Society Patrons
Angela Camber has been a member of the Griffins Society since 1994 and was Chair from 1996 to 2007. Angela has done all manner of things within and around the criminal justice system over many years and still finds it all fascinating, stimulating and even at times, exciting! In particular, Angela is absolutely delighted that the Society is able to offer the Griffins Fellowships.
Angela's interest in public and voluntary service developed as a result of doing the Diploma in Social Policy and Administration. After the Diploma, Angela worked for many years as a local authority social worker and subsequently moved into the voluntary sector.
Angela has been a magistrate since 1978 and was apparently the youngest person to have been appointed. What a stupendous claim to fame!
Angela has been involved with the Probation Service since 1988 when she was elected to serve on what was the Middlesex Probation Committee in London. Angela became Chair of that Committee in 1997 and in 2000/01 chaired the amalgamation of the five former London Probation Services which resulted in the creation of the London Probation Area, the largest area within the new National Probation Service. Angela now serves on the new London Probation Board and is also a council member of Nacro.
Finally, to complete the picture, Angela is married to Richard, an art consultant, and they have three rather wonderful children, the youngest of whom are twins.
Professor Frances Heidensohn is Visiting Professor, Department of Sociology, London School of Economics and Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of London. She taught at Goldsmiths College for many years. She has written and researched widely on gender, crime, justice, policing and comparative criminology; among her books are Women and Crime, Women in Control? The Role of Women in Law Enforcemen, Crime in Europe and Gender and Justice.
She has extensive experience of public service: she was Chair of a Health Authority for seven years has been a Commissioner for Judicial Appointments and is a member of the Sentencing Advisory Panel.
Frances wrote the Foreword of Judith Rumgay's book on the Griffins Society: Ladies of Lost Causes. Rehabilitation, Women Offenders and the Voluntary Sector and became a patron of the Griffins Society this year.
Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC, practises predominantly in the criminal law, undertaking leading work of all kinds. She also undertakes judicial review, public inquiries and sex discrimination work. She has acted in many of the prominent cases of the last decade including the Brighton Bombing Trial, Guildford Four Appeal, the bombing of the Israeli Embassy, the abduction of Baby Abbie Humphries and a number of key domestic violence cases. She is currently acting in cases connected to the recent wave of terrorism.
She is Chair of the Human Genetics Commission and a member of the World Bank Institute’s External Advisory Council and was recently appointed to the board of the British Museum. She stepped down as Chair of the British Council in July 2004 after completing six years. She was Chair of the Inquiry into Sudden Infant Death for the Royal Colleges of Pathologists and of Paediatrics, producing a protocol for the investigation of such deaths. She is the Chair of the Power Inquiry’s campaign, makeitanissue.org.uk, which calls for the next phase of constitutional reform to be a more inclusive, democratic process that involves ordinary citizens. She is the Chair of Arts and Business, a Bencher of Gray’s Inn and a Member of the House of Lords speaking on issues of human rights and civil liberties.
A frequent broadcaster and journalist on law and women's rights. Her publications include the widely acclaimed Eve Was Framed: Women and British Justice (Vintage, 1993) which has been fully updated and has been reissued in paperback, March 2005. Her new book Just Law: The Changing Face of Justice and Why It Matters to Us All (Chatto & Windus, 2004) was published in paperback, March 2005.
Special Advisor to the Griffins Society Research Fellowships Programme
Professor Carol Hedderman, BA (Hons), M. Phil (Cantab), PhD (Cantab) was appointed Professor of Criminology at the University of Leicester in October 2004.
From 1986-1999 she worked in the Home Office Research and Statistics Directorate conducting and managing research which included projects on sentencers' decision-making, the sentencing of women, and the enforcement of community sentences, the treatment of mentally disordered and sex offenders. Between 1999 and 2002 she was Deputy Director of the Criminal Policy Research Unit at London Southbank University (now the Institute for Criminal Policy Research at Kings College London). During that time she managed projects on a range of topics including probation enforcement, dealing with domestic violence and evaluating projects to reduce burglary. She also served on the Parole Board during this period. Carol returned to the Home Office as an Assistant Director of the Home Office Research and Statistics Directorate in October 2002 where she had lead responsibility for statistics and research into concerning the management and impact of the prison and probation services. Carol is a member of the Independent Advisory Group on Women in the Criminal Justice System set up by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform in 2009.
Research Interests:
The effectiveness of sentencing; 'rational' approaches to sentencing; the comparative effectiveness of different approaches to enforcing court penalties; 'what works' in prison and probation; reconviction studies and the development of alternative measures of effectiveness; treatment of female offenders at different stages of the criminal justice system; domestic violence; rural crime.
Current research:
Carol is conducting a study of how reconviction rates might be used to assess probation performance as an alternative to the current government measures which she has previously reviewed and found to be flawed in a number of important respects. She is also currently invoved in a project to examine the quality and effectiveness of relationships between offenders on probation and their supervisors. She will shortly be publishing a journal article on what women who have been through the Together Women programme say about the experience and a book chapter which critically examines current government policy on women offenders.