09 June
AMANDA KELLY & MICHAEL ATKINS Judge & Legal Director of the Parole Board
‘DECISIONS ON LIBERTY Locking up Criminals and Setting them Free’ Amanda is a judge who decides cases in criminal and family law. After obtaining a theology degree from Oxford University, she began her career as a national newspaper and television journalist. She retrained as a barrister in her late 20s and was appointed as a judge in 2013. Her husband, Michael Atkins, is legal director of the Parole Board, the body which decides whether the most dangerous criminals are safe to release into society once they have served the minimum term of their prison sentence. Michael, who studied law at Oxford University, qualified as a solicitor before joining the Government Legal Service. For twenty years, he has advised government ministers, drafted legislation, and taken Bills through Parliament. Amanda and Michael’s daughter, Sophie, is in Year 8 at Roedean. In their symposium session, Amanda and Michael will outline the key principles that must be taken into consideration when sentencing criminals and deciding if, and when, they are safe to be released from prison. They will then challenge students to take on the role of judge and decision-maker in their own fictitious, but true-to-life, scenarios.
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