Cassia Rowland
@cassiarowland.bsky.social
Senior researcher in public services @Instituteforgov, passionate about crime. Formerly @CrestAdvisory. Also trustee @EndometriosisUK
Gov to abolish police & crime commissioners. I'm not sold on this yet: yes, where there are mayors, it makes sense for them to hold these powers and turnout in PCC elections is low. But policing boards aren't necessarily a better option and the convening power of PCCs can be v valuable
Police and crime commissioners to be scrapped in England and Wales
The government says it will save £100m over this Parliament and less than 20% of voters can name their PCC.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Gov to abolish police & crime commissioners. I'm not sold on this yet: yes, where there are mayors, it makes sense for them to hold these powers and turnout in PCC elections is low. But policing boards aren't necessarily a better option and the convening power of PCCs can be v valuable
My latest piece for @russellwebster.com, this time on prison performance! You may have noticed it popping up on the news recently that prisons aren’t in a great state — but why? Have a look for the headlines on funding, staffing, conditions and more.
How are prisons performing?
@cassiarowland.bsky.social from the @instituteforgovernment.org.uk sums up prison performance in the third of her series of performance tracker guest posts. She says "capacity will remain on a knife edge until at least "2028"
www.russellwebster.com/how-are-pris...
@cassiarowland.bsky.social from the @instituteforgovernment.org.uk sums up prison performance in the third of her series of performance tracker guest posts. She says "capacity will remain on a knife edge until at least "2028"
www.russellwebster.com/how-are-pris...
How are prisons performing?
Cassia Rowland from the Institute for Government sums up prison performance in the third of her series of performance tracker guest posts.
www.russellwebster.com
November 13, 2025 at 8:43 AM
My latest piece for @russellwebster.com, this time on prison performance! You may have noticed it popping up on the news recently that prisons aren’t in a great state — but why? Have a look for the headlines on funding, staffing, conditions and more.
Super interesting thread here!
A month ago I looked at what I called Labour's midlife crisis- an obsession with chasing socially conservative Reform-curious voters and ignoring groups of disaffected voters with social attitudes much closer to Labour voters. But some people thought there was method in their madness. Was there? 1/n
November 12, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Super interesting thread here!
This is a tragic, beautiful piece that highlights the brutal reality of life for many repeat offenders.
When I met Craig he was 13 and homeless. I still thought his life might turn around. I was tragically wrong
The long read: I knew he was running away from something. It wasn’t until many years later that I discovered the truth
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 5:32 PM
This is a tragic, beautiful piece that highlights the brutal reality of life for many repeat offenders.
Can’t quite believe I’m saying this but: more funding *for these services* isn’t how I’d fix criminal justice! Probation & courts 100% need more money, but big increases are already planned. I’d focus on drivers: housing, substance misuse, lack of opportunities, behavioural/speech & language issues
- significant funding increase for police, the courts, probation and the prison service
- action to lower energy costs (this looks like happening)
- more tax powers for councils so they can increase their own spending power on local amenities etc (poorer areas are already destined for more funding)
- action to lower energy costs (this looks like happening)
- more tax powers for councils so they can increase their own spending power on local amenities etc (poorer areas are already destined for more funding)
November 10, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Can’t quite believe I’m saying this but: more funding *for these services* isn’t how I’d fix criminal justice! Probation & courts 100% need more money, but big increases are already planned. I’d focus on drivers: housing, substance misuse, lack of opportunities, behavioural/speech & language issues
Great summary from Sam of just how dire a state the criminal justice system is in — and the massive political and human risks that creates. We go through all the facts and figures in our Public Services Performance Tracker:
November 8, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Great summary from Sam of just how dire a state the criminal justice system is in — and the massive political and human risks that creates. We go through all the facts and figures in our Public Services Performance Tracker:
Fantastic thread and report by Amber on school performance!
NEW REPORT Labour is struggling to meet its education priorities. It has big ambitions to improve schools, but a budget that falls short of matching them. And with no clear plans to reform the SEND system or tackle workforce shortages, children are being left without the support they need.
Performance Tracker 2025: Schools | Institute for Government
It will be extremely difficult for the government to meet its education priorities within the budget it has set for the coming parliament.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk
November 6, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Fantastic thread and report by Amber on school performance!
There’s a lot of focus on prisons at the moment… but one of the latest mistaken prisoner releases was actually due to a court error! So what’s going on in criminal courts? My blog for @russellwebster.com gives you the headlines
How well are the courts performing?
@cassiarowland.bsky.social from the @instituteforgovernment.org.uk sums up court performance in the second of her series of performance tracker guest posts. www.russellwebster.com/how-well-are...
@cassiarowland.bsky.social from the @instituteforgovernment.org.uk sums up court performance in the second of her series of performance tracker guest posts. www.russellwebster.com/how-well-are...
How well are the courts performing?
Cassia Rowland from the Institute for Government sums up court performance in the second of her series of performance tracker guest posts.
www.russellwebster.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:14 AM
There’s a lot of focus on prisons at the moment… but one of the latest mistaken prisoner releases was actually due to a court error! So what’s going on in criminal courts? My blog for @russellwebster.com gives you the headlines
Reposted by Cassia Rowland
To be fair, I think it probably is true! It’s hard to overstate the degree to which (some) prisons can’t answer complicated questions like ‘how many prisoners do you have’ and ‘what does your day-to-day regime look like’.
November 5, 2025 at 9:34 PM
To be fair, I think it probably is true! It’s hard to overstate the degree to which (some) prisons can’t answer complicated questions like ‘how many prisoners do you have’ and ‘what does your day-to-day regime look like’.
Another week, another mistaken prisoner release! Almost like this is a systemic problem www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/pris...
November 5, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Another week, another mistaken prisoner release! Almost like this is a systemic problem www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/pris...
Reposted by Cassia Rowland
Rachel Reeves has pledged to do what is necessary to protect public services "from a return to austerity".
So how are public services performing? The first instalments of Performance Tracker 2025 explore local govt services and criminal justice www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
So how are public services performing? The first instalments of Performance Tracker 2025 explore local govt services and criminal justice www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
Public Services Performance Tracker 2025 | Institute for Government
Labour’s public service plans are less than the sum of their parts.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk
November 4, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Rachel Reeves has pledged to do what is necessary to protect public services "from a return to austerity".
So how are public services performing? The first instalments of Performance Tracker 2025 explore local govt services and criminal justice www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
So how are public services performing? The first instalments of Performance Tracker 2025 explore local govt services and criminal justice www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
I think this is right — it’s basically the path Cameron & Osborne took. Plus if I remember correctly I think we had pre-election polling showing most people didn’t believe promises on tax anyway!
If parties want credit for telling hard truths, they need to tell them when they're genuinely hard.
If Labour had told the truth about taxes & the costs of Brexit before the election, its majority would be smaller.
But it would have more real power & the public would put more faith in its judgment
If Labour had told the truth about taxes & the costs of Brexit before the election, its majority would be smaller.
But it would have more real power & the public would put more faith in its judgment
She is telling an accurate story of recent history - the triple punch of austerity, Brexit and covid. It's spot on. But it is terribly strange to say it now in government when you were not prepared to say it in opposition.
November 4, 2025 at 10:21 AM
I think this is right — it’s basically the path Cameron & Osborne took. Plus if I remember correctly I think we had pre-election polling showing most people didn’t believe promises on tax anyway!
Great to be featured on Russell’s invaluable blog. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be doing posts summarising the findings from Performance Tracker — so for those of you who for some reason don’t want to read 99 pages of criminal justice stats, here’s the bite size version!
How well are the police performing?
Cassia Rowland from the @instituteforgovernment.org.uk sums up their new Public Services Performance Tracker on policing in the first in a new guest blog series
www.russellwebster.com/how-well-are...
Cassia Rowland from the @instituteforgovernment.org.uk sums up their new Public Services Performance Tracker on policing in the first in a new guest blog series
www.russellwebster.com/how-well-are...
How well are the police performing?
Cassia Rowland from the Institute for Government sums up their new Public Services Performance Tracker on policing.
www.russellwebster.com
October 30, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Great to be featured on Russell’s invaluable blog. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be doing posts summarising the findings from Performance Tracker — so for those of you who for some reason don’t want to read 99 pages of criminal justice stats, here’s the bite size version!
Reposted by Cassia Rowland
Worth noting that in Nov 24 the govt wrote to South Cambridgeshire to say that voters were best placed to decide on council effectiveness and that Labour would bring an “end to micromanaging”
I’d like to see the full text of this latest letter to see what has changed
I’d like to see the full text of this latest letter to see what has changed
October 29, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Worth noting that in Nov 24 the govt wrote to South Cambridgeshire to say that voters were best placed to decide on council effectiveness and that Labour would bring an “end to micromanaging”
I’d like to see the full text of this latest letter to see what has changed
I’d like to see the full text of this latest letter to see what has changed
ICYMI, I caught up with @archiebland.bsky.social yesterday about what exactly is going on in prisons and how this kind of mistake can happen www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Tuesday briefing: What the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu reveals about a Prison Service in crisis
In today’s newsletter: Rising numbers of prisoners released by accident are laying bare systemic failings in England and Wales, from overworked staff to issues with probation
www.theguardian.com
October 29, 2025 at 11:11 AM
ICYMI, I caught up with @archiebland.bsky.social yesterday about what exactly is going on in prisons and how this kind of mistake can happen www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
New comment from me on the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu: this error reflects much broader problems within prisons and across the criminal justice system
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/pris...
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/pris...
The mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu is a symptom of a failing system | Institute for Government
The problems in criminal justice run far deeper than one high-profile error.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk
October 28, 2025 at 4:01 PM
New comment from me on the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu: this error reflects much broader problems within prisons and across the criminal justice system
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/pris...
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/pris...
I spoke to BBC Verify this afternoon about the state of our prison system and how the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu, the former asylum seeker convicted of sexual assault in Essex over the summer, might have happened
October 27, 2025 at 4:20 PM
I spoke to BBC Verify this afternoon about the state of our prison system and how the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu, the former asylum seeker convicted of sexual assault in Essex over the summer, might have happened
Reposted by Cassia Rowland
Interesting podcast episode featuring @cassiarowland.bsky.social and @dannyshaw.bsky.social discussing the many current challenges facing the government over policing and the rest of the justice system.


The Prisons Crisis Strikes Back
Podcast Episode · Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government · 23/10/2025 · 35m
podcasts.apple.com
October 27, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Interesting podcast episode featuring @cassiarowland.bsky.social and @dannyshaw.bsky.social discussing the many current challenges facing the government over policing and the rest of the justice system.


Reposted by Cassia Rowland
We only really see the stress in the system when there is a high profile failure point but a well-designed justice system is as much (if not more) about rehabilitation as incarceration - and the process failures here are mostly invisible
October 27, 2025 at 10:03 AM
We only really see the stress in the system when there is a high profile failure point but a well-designed justice system is as much (if not more) about rehabilitation as incarceration - and the process failures here are mostly invisible
Reposted by Cassia Rowland
The justice minister is right to be 'absolutely terrified' of prisons running out of space. As @cassiarowland.bsky.social's report showed last week, prison capacity will be on a knife edge for the next two years unless the govt takes further action to free up space
October 27, 2025 at 9:37 AM
The justice minister is right to be 'absolutely terrified' of prisons running out of space. As @cassiarowland.bsky.social's report showed last week, prison capacity will be on a knife edge for the next two years unless the govt takes further action to free up space
Great episode of For Wales, See Wales on the Caerphilly by-election - well worth a listen! Feat. the excellent @willhaycardiff.bsky.social www.buzzsprout.com/2410605/epis...
Shock Caerphilly By-Election Result - For Wales, See Wales
Ring the alarm - an emergency pod has dropped!Will, Robin and Mel react to the shock Caerphilly by-election result which saw Plaid Cymru take the Senedd seat from Labour for the first time in Senedd h...
www.buzzsprout.com
October 25, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Great episode of For Wales, See Wales on the Caerphilly by-election - well worth a listen! Feat. the excellent @willhaycardiff.bsky.social www.buzzsprout.com/2410605/epis...
Well this is a particularly depressing illustration of what a collapsing justice system looks like. 262 people were released from prison by mistake in 2024/25 — more than twice the previous year and almost 4.5x 2014/15
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
October 25, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Well this is a particularly depressing illustration of what a collapsing justice system looks like. 262 people were released from prison by mistake in 2024/25 — more than twice the previous year and almost 4.5x 2014/15
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Cassia Rowland
A really important analysis of the significant challenges facing the government in turning our ailing criminal justice system around.
🔴 Prisons report — www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
🔴 Overview report — www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
🔴 Prisons report — www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
🔴 Overview report — www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
NEW REPORT Criminal justice is coming apart at the seams. Police, criminal courts & prisons can’t cope with the level of demand and performance keeps spiralling downwards. Early positive steps from the government won't be enough to turn things around
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
Performance Tracker 2025: Criminal justice system | Institute for Government
The government must act to avoid the justice system returning to the crisis point seen when Labour entered office, or worse.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk
October 24, 2025 at 10:52 AM
A really important analysis of the significant challenges facing the government in turning our ailing criminal justice system around.
🔴 Prisons report — www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
🔴 Overview report — www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
🔴 Prisons report — www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
🔴 Overview report — www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
I'm back on the IfG podcast! Great to welcome @dannyshaw.bsky.social to discuss just a few of the big home affairs stories dominating the news this week - as well as our new report. Have a listen!
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/podcast/pris...
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/podcast/pris...
The Prisons Crisis Strikes Back | Institute for Government
Former BBC journalist and Labour adviser Danny Shaw joins the podcast team to discuss the state of the criminal justice system.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk
October 23, 2025 at 3:53 PM
I'm back on the IfG podcast! Great to welcome @dannyshaw.bsky.social to discuss just a few of the big home affairs stories dominating the news this week - as well as our new report. Have a listen!
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/podcast/pris...
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/podcast/pris...
Great thread here from our fab research assistant @marialaura-lacorte.bsky.social, who has done fantastic work behind the scenes across our Performance Tracker reports
Really pleased to have contributed to the new criminal justice section of Performance Tracker 2025, now live on the @instituteforgovernment.org.uk’s website. It brings together new analysis on police, criminal courts and prisons. Some thoughts below. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
Performance Tracker 2025: Criminal justice system | Institute for Government
The government must act to avoid the justice system returning to the crisis point seen when Labour entered office, or worse.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk
October 23, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Great thread here from our fab research assistant @marialaura-lacorte.bsky.social, who has done fantastic work behind the scenes across our Performance Tracker reports