Frances Crook

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Frances Crook (b.1952) is the director of the Howard League for Penal Reform. Appointed in 1986, she has been responsible for research programmes and campaigns to raise public concern about suicides in prison, the over-use of custody, poor conditions in prison, young people in trouble and mothers in prison. She writes articles for the national media, and frequently does interviews on radio and television news.

Frances Crook was the campaigns co-coordinator at the British Section of Amnesty International from 1980 to 1985. After taking a history degree at Liverpool University she qualified as a teacher, working in secondary schools in Liverpool and London until 1980. She was twice elected as a Labour Councillor for East Finchley in the London Borough of Barnet, serving from 1982 to 1990. She was a Governor of the University of Greenwich for 6 years and chaired the Staff and General Committee, retiring in 2002. She was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in 1997.