On 10 September about 1,700 people were released early from prison in an attempt to tackle overcrowding; the same day His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons published a scathing annual report on the conditions in which prisoners are held. The scale and severity of the prisons crisis is front-page news.

If we are to find lasting solutions, we must understand what led us here in the first place; which means talking about sentencing.

The Howard League’s Parmoor Lecture is held annually in memory of Lord Parmoor, Milo Cripps, a supporter and major donor to the charity.

This year’s event will be slightly different. It will be a panel session reflecting on our paper, Sentence inflation: A judicial critique, which calls on the government to reverse the trend of imposing ever longer sentences.

The paper is signed by Lord Woolf, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, and Lord Burnett of Maldon – each of whom served as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales – and Sir Brian Leveson, the only surviving President of the Queen’s Bench Division who was also head of Criminal Justice. Three of the former judges will be on our panel.

The former judges say there is nothing to justify the fact that custodial sentence lengths have approximately doubled over the half-century that they have been involved in the law. The number of people in prison rose from about 40,000 in 1991, the year in which the Woolf Report into the Strangeways riot was published, to more than 88,000 on the eve of the early release scheme this month.

With the government promising to hold a sentencing review in the near future, there is no better time to join our panel of experts as we examine the issue in depth.

This event will be hosted by our Chief Executive, Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.). The panel will include:

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers

Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd

Lord Burnett of Maldon

This is an invite-only event. If you have not been emailed an invite to this event, please email katie.logue@howardleague.org to see if there is availability.

Tickets are strictly limited. Book early to avoid disappointment, and please let us know if you can no longer make it.

This event will be generously hosted by Mishcon de Reya, on Tuesday 26 November from 6.30pm to 7.30pm. Arrive at Africa House (70 Kingsway, London WC2B 6AH) for registration from 6pm. The discussion will start at 6.30pm, followed by a drinks reception at 7.30pm.