Darren McGarvey: The State We’re In

Episode
Episode 1 - Justice
Broadcast Info
2024 (59 mins)
Description
UK prisons are overcrowded, public trust in the police is at an all-time low, it takes years for cases to reach court, and knife and gun crime seems to dominate headlines. Darren McGarvey journeys through the justice system to find out why it serves neither victim nor criminal. Spending the day with a rookie police officer on her first day on the job in High Wycombe, Darren wants to find out how the police can begin to repair their relationship with communities. In Liverpool, Darren sees first-hand the reality of the city’s knife-crime epidemic when he meets the devasted mother of Ava White who was stabbed to death in 2021, aged 12. Staying in the city, Darren meets an organisation tackling violent crime with boxing. Fortunately, Ava’s family were able to see her killer sentenced within just a few months, but for many victims of crime, the wait for justice now stretches into years. To find out the reality of Britain’s court backlog Darren meets high-flying London barrister Joanna Hardy-Susskind, who has given him a privileged peek behind the wigs and gowns. For those who do face their day in court and receive a sentence, serving time could involve an overcrowded Victorian prison where officers spend so long getting the inmates fed that there is little time for anything else. Spending a day in Barlinnie, Scotland’s oldest and biggest prison, Darren faces the realities of a 21st Century jail. He then heads to Norway, where in stark contrast, prisoners receive shorter sentences and the focus is on rehabilitation - all in the name of releasing them back to society as the sort of person you’d want living next door. Could the UK ever follow a similar approach? Finally, Darren meets a good news story when he travels to Southampton to meet a former prisoner who now, as a fully qualified lawyer, practices Sara Aadenin the very court he was sentenced in.
Genre
Social Science; Justice

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Darren McGarvey: The State We’re In". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/248599 (Accessed 09 Jan 2025)