Frances Crook OBE
Alma materLiverpool University
OccupationFormer Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform

Frances Crook OBE (born 1952) is the former Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, the oldest penal reform charity in the United Kingdom.[1][2][3]

Early life and career

Frances Crook grew up in London, her father was Jewish and had a successful business selling 'home movies and comedy films' [3] She graduated in history from Liverpool University, and subsequently qualified as a teacher, working in secondary schools in Liverpool and London until 1980.

Having grown up with a strong sense of social justice,[4] she was the campaigns co-coordinator at the British Section of Amnesty International from 1980 to 1985, and was twice elected as a Labour Councillor for East Finchley in the London Borough of Barnet, serving from 1982 to 1990, leading on housing and planning and holding weekly surgeries.

The Howard League for Penal Reform

Appointed in 1986, she was responsible for the Howard League's research programmes and campaigns to raise public concern about issues including suicides in prison, the over-use of custody, poor carceral conditions, young people in trouble and mothers in prison. Under her direction the number of staff and turnover of the charity grew twenty-fold. She described this work as her 'life’s mission'.[1] and joked that she suffers from nominative determinism as her name literally means “free the criminals”.[5]

Crook has campaigned for the whole UK penal system to be subject to a radical overhaul. She has highlighted the structural inequalities and injustice of the existing system and argued that a smaller more ethical and compassionate prison system would save public money, transform lives and change incarceration for good.[1][5]

During her career she worked with nearly 20 different cabinet ministers responsible for prisons and finds that the barriers to reform change with the government and politics of the day.[5] She has spoken publicly and written in a range of media[6][7] to highlight 'the most despicable and nastiest' rules such as banning of books in prisons.[8][9][4][10]

The charity has secured a contract with the Legal Services Commission to provide legal advice to children in custody and has taken a number of successful judicial reviews that have improved the treatment of children and young people in custody and on release.[11] Working with the police to reduce the number of children who are arrested has had a significant impact. Reflectng in 2021 she said "The arrest is the gateway, the door to the system. When we started this campaign there were a third of a million child arrests, last year there were 70,000. The result of that, there used to be three and a half thousand children in prison, now there are 500.”

She announced her retirement in 2021 after 30 years.[12][4]

Other work

Crook has been a school governor and chaired various local community organisations. She was a Governor of the University of Greenwich for 6 years and chaired the Staff and General Committee, retiring in 2002. In 2005 to 2008 she served on the board of the School Food Trust, the non-departmental public body charged with overseeing the implementation of national standards for school food to every school in England and Wales.[13][3]

In 2009 she was appointed an NHS non-executive director of Barnet Primary Care Trust, responsible for a budget of £550 million delivering health services to 350,000 people. In 2010 she was appointed a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics.

In 2022 she established the Commission on Political Power along with Frances D'Souza, Baroness D'Souza as co-convenor. to generate a national debate on potential legislative and structural reform of the UK’s political system.[14]

Honours

She was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in 1997 and the Perrie Award in 2005. Crook was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to youth justice in the 2010 New Year Honours.[15] She has honorary doctorates from University of Liverpool and Leeds Beckett University.[16] In 2010 she was appointed a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics[17] and is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at Leicester University[18]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The reform of prisons has been my life's work, but they are still utterly broken | Frances Crook". the Guardian. 10 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  2. ↑ "The Howard League | Frances Crook". The Howard League. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "Crook, Frances (9 of 9) National Life Stories: Pioneers in Charity and Social Welfare - Charity and social welfare - Oral history | British Library - Sounds". sounds.bl.uk. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 "Time to go… – insidetime & insideinformation". 30 June 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 "A life behind bars". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  6. ↑ "Conversations on Criminal Justice – Frances Crook". Oxford Law Faculty. 20 July 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  7. ↑ "Frances Crook | HuffPost". www.huffingtonpost.co.uk. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  8. ↑ "Comment: Why has Grayling banned prisoners being sent books?". Politics.co.uk. 23 March 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  9. ↑ "Three in Four Prisons Are Overcrowded - Ministers Must Recognise There Is a Problem". HuffPost UK. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  10. ↑ "In praise of … Frances Crook | Hugh Muir". the Guardian. 5 December 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  11. ↑ "Frances Crook: Fighting for the rights of children". the Guardian. 10 November 2002. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  12. ↑ "Howard League chief Frances Crook announces retirement". CYP Now. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  13. ↑ "Frances Crook OBE | School of Criminology | University of Leicester". le.ac.uk. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  14. ↑ "Commission on Political Power". Commission on Political Power. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  15. ↑ "No. 59282". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2009. p. 9.
  16. ↑ "In Conversation Live with Frances Crook OBE". www.rsm.ac.uk. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  17. ↑ "Crook, Frances (9 of 9) National Life Stories: Pioneers in Charity and Social Welfare - Charity and social welfare - Oral history | British Library - Sounds". sounds.bl.uk. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  18. ↑ "Frances Crook OBE". le.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
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