Holly Bird

Academic writing:

• ‘Defunding the police is good for our mental health’,The Political Quarterly, 2024. On the Met’s ‘Right Person, Right Care’ policy; co-written with Habib Kadiri and Dr Lucy Bryant.

Research reports:

• Children’s Hearings Redesign Consultation Analysis: Independent report commissioned by the Scottish Government, 2025. Thematic analysis of responses to a consultation on the Children’s Hearings System commissioned by the Scottish Government. Co-written with Debbie Nolan from CYCJ.
• Serious Violence Reduction Orders: The impression of doing something, 2024. Reporting the findings of our research on the SVRO pilot, co-written with StopWatch and the CCJS. Funded by the Transition to Adulthood Alliance / Barrow Cadbury Trust.
• Out of Order: The Rise of Stop and Search in Civil Orders Legislation, 2024. Report highlighting the rise of civil orders and their impact on marginalised and racialised groups across England and Wales, including my FOI research on KCPOs. Co-written with former colleagues from StopWatch.

Book reviews:

• Book Review: Supply Chain Justice: The Logistics of British Border Control, Oxford Border Criminologies Blog, 2025.

Blog posts:

• LFR sets its sights on Scotland, StopWatch Blog, 2025. On Police Scotland’s launch of a ‘national conversation’ about the use of LFR tech.
• Repetitive, vague, meaningless, and unenforceable: We read the Met’s new ‘Stop and Search Charter’ so you don’t have to, StopWatch Blog, 2025. Analysis of the Met’s new ‘Stop and Search Charter’.
• Sexual Violence and the Boundaries of the Nation: Formulating Anti-racist Feminist Responses to Violence Against Women within Ethnic Minority Communities, Oxford Centre for Criminology Blog. Write-up of a talk by Dr Kiran Grewal at the Oxford Centre for Criminology.
• Artful Punishment: The Curious Symbiosis Between Art and Imprisonment, Oxford Centre for Criminology Blog, 2021. Write-up of a talk by Prof Anastasia Chamberlen at the Oxford Centre for Criminology.
• Victims of Domestic Violence: Some Notes from the ‘Periphery’ to the ‘World Centres’, Oxford Centre for Criminology Blog, 2021. Write-up of a talk by Professor Fernanda Fonseca Rosenblatt at the Oxford Centre for Criminology.

News articles for ‘The Justice Gap’ magazine:

• Staffing crisis at Northamptonshire prison ‘one of the worst I have seen’, says Chief Inspector, Sept 2022.
• ‘Urgent action’ required to address healthcare needs of women in prison, report finds, July 2022.
• Prison ombudsman launches investigation after woman dies at HMP Styal, July 2022.
• Overcrowding an ‘enduring crisis’ at HMP Low Moss, report finds, July 2022.
• ‘Significant’ increase in use of force at HMP Elmley, June 2022.
• Violence at HMYOI Werrington ‘higher than any other establishment in England and Wales’, May 2022.

I also wrote StopWatch’s monthly newsletter on Substack from July 2022 to January 2024 during my time as Research and Policy Officer.