Dear Members and Supporters
 
This is a plea for your help. Unless we can raise more money, we may be unable to continue our vital campaigning work for a better penal system in Scotland beyond the end of the year.
 
We are a small Scottish charity that is fiercely independent of government funding, but without you we might not be able to do it for much longer. 
 
Since lockdown began in March of last year, Howard League Scotland has continued working tirelessly to shine a light on what’s been happening in the criminal justice system, and inside Scotland’s prisons. Here’s just a flavour of what we’ve been doing:
 

• we’ve continued to press for the prison population to be reduced, now that it’s back to 92% of its pre-pandemic level and 6 out of 15 prisons are still over-capacity
• we’ve worked with partner organisations such as Amnesty International and the Human Rights Consortium Scotland to raise awareness of prison conditions and to push for this to be included as part of a public enquiry into the effects of COVID19
• we’ve raised questions in Parliament about increasing rates of remand, particularly amongst children
• we’ve analysed and drawn attention to human rights concerns in HMIPS Liaison Visit inspections, meeting regularly with HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland
• we’ve examined legislation and formally questioned the Scottish Government’s lack of scrutiny in passing a negative instrument to extend prison regime restrictions
• we’ve supported calls for a reduction in the outstanding number of unpaid work hours under existing Community Payback Orders, whilst raising concerns to the Justice Committee as to the fairness and validity of the exclusions
• we’ve submitted Freedom of Information requests to ascertain waiting list lengths for the offender behaviour programmes which are central to progression
• we’ve written articles on prisoner voting and on children being held in police custody

 
We’ve achieved all of this with just one part-time contracted Policy and Public Affairs Adviser and our Committee of volunteers. We will, of course, keep up the good work as long as we can, but would ask all of our members and supporters to consider making a donation to Howard League Scotland or, if you’re not already a member, please join us! It’s only £20 per year to join and you can do that or donate here.
 
Or maybe you could consider doing a little fundraising on our behalf? A sponsored run or swim; an online quiz night; or even a good old-fashioned raffle. Many organisations now allow customers to donate an element of their spending to nominated charities. Maybe you could choose HLS. Perhaps you’re a professional fundraiser who could donate some of your time and expertise to help us. Visit our website to see how you could help: http://howardleague.scot/join.

Please, feel free to contact our Treasurer with any thoughts and suggestions: treasurer@howardleague.scot.  
 
Please join us. Please support our work. Thank you so much for your help in advance.