Regular readers will know I punctuate the year with three Quizzes – Advent, Easter & August Bank Holiday. So here is your Easter 2025 edition. It’s a simple multiple choice test about anything and everything to do with the criminal justice system. All the answers are to be found somewhere on this blog I hope the sun is shining wherever you are when you test your knowledge of the CJS.
Good luck and do share your results on social media especially if you have bragging rights to announce.
Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use many of the images in the Quiz. You can see Andy’s work here
Results
Congratulations!
Better luck next time
#1. Recalls to prison keep increasing but how many recalls were there in the last quarter?
This is a staggering 42% increase on the previous year.
#2. Since 2000, the number of men in prison globally has increased by 22%. But what’s the equivalent for women?
Over 733,000 women are in prison across the world.
#3. What proportion of life sentencers have a tariff of over 20 years?
We are sending people to prison for longer.
#4. How does MOJ spending for 2025/26 compare in real terms to 2007/8?
In 2025–26, real-terms day-to-day spending by the Ministry of Justice is set to be 14% lower than in 2007–08, and 24% lower in per-person terms (per head of population in England and Wales).
#5. Part 1 of the Sentencing Review attributed prison overcrowding to what reason?
“The reality is that our prison population has grown very rapidly over the last 30 years and the principal cause of this increase is that prison sentences have been lengthened substantially by successive governments. It is an approach that has emphasised the importance of punishment understood primarily as incarceration – an important aspect of sentencing policy – but has been insufficiently focused on the most effective ways to reduce crime.”
#6. The Hancock review into girls in custody recommends that the most appropriate placements for girls are:
Girls make up just 2% of the children in custody
#7. What proportion of probation public protection work did inspectors rate as effective?
Just 35% of 1,748 inspected cases
#8. How did the Chief Inspector of Probation describe the service in his annual report?
“The Probation Service currently has too few staff, with too little experience and training, managing too many cases.”
#9. In March 2020 there were 40,898 open Crown Court cases. What was the figure in December 2024?
74,651 is the highest ever figure
#10. What is the name of the new Bill introduced in the wake of the “two-tier” justice political row?
“The Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-Sentence Reports) Bill will ensure that guidelines about when a pre-sentence report (PSR) should be obtained do not specifically refer to the race, ethnicity, or any other personal characteristic of the offender.”
