Speaker Biographies

Chair for the day - Frank Whiteley

Frank Whiteley took up the post of Chief Constable of Hertfordshire in October 2004, having been Deputy and Assistant Chief Constable for Northamptonshire since April 1997. He started his career in the Police Service in 1978 having graduated from Cambridge University after reading Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Studies. He later completed an MBA with the Open University and a Diploma in Applied Criminology with Cambridge University.

Highlights during his time in Northamptonshire included operation command at the burial of Princess Diana in the county, the Easter Floods of 1998 and the fuel crisis (2000), as well as involvement in the British Grand Prix policing operations.

Within Hertfordshire, Frank currently Chairs the Criminal Justice Board. He has been a supporter of the inter-agency national Award winning “Choices and Consequences” programme, which is aimed at the rehabilitation of the most prolific acquisitive criminals.

At a national level, he has been involved with the introduction of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and the National Crime Recording Standard. He is currently Chair of the Association of Police Officers Automatic Number Plate Recognition Steering Group and is the police service lead officer for Neighbourhood Watch. He is also Deputy Chair of the ACPO Performance Management Business Area.

Married with three school-age children, his interests include playing table tennis, walking and visiting historic houses and railways.

Professor Shadd Maruna

Professor Shadd Maruna is the Director of the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast. Previously, he has been a lecturer at the University of Cambridge and the State University of New York. His research focuses on the reintegration of former prisoners. His book Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives was named the “Outstanding Contribution to Criminology” by the American Society of Criminology in 2001. His other books include: Rehabilitation: Beyond the Risk Paradigm (2007), The Effects of Imprisonment (2005), After Crime and Punishment: Pathways to Ex-Offender Reintegration (2004), and Fifty Key Thinkers in Criminology (2010).

Bobby Cummines

  • Age 16 – convicted for possession of a sawn-off shotgun, sentenced to imprisonment and beginning of a criminal life
  • Served a total of thirteen out of twenty years sentenced, in prison, for various serious offences including manslaughter and bank robbery – classed as one of Britain’s most dangerous men
  • Involved in prison riots and sit-downs
  • Moved around various maximum security prisons
  • On release from prison in 1988, he decided to “go straight”, undertaking various menial jobs and then returning to education, studying for a university degree
  • Worked for a housing association in a hostel environment
  • Founder member, now Chief Executive of the Charity Unlock, the National Association of Reformed Offenders.  Bobby works in partnership with statutory and voluntary agencies within the criminal justice system along with the private sector, to overcome social exclusion and discrimination faced by ex-offenders, thus helping to break the cycle of re-offending. 
  • He also works with young people who are at risk of offending, or already on anti-social behaviour orders, to inform and challenge behaviour which may lead to a criminal conviction, the harsh reality of prison life and its aftermath.
  • Representing ex-offenders, he has addressed numerous conferences, statutory agencies, non-statutory bodies, charities, prison inmates, community groups and employers as well as debating in the public forum of television, radio and newspaper articles concerning issues of social injustice received by ex-offenders, to inform and challenge popular misconceptions and prejudice.

  • Bobby is a Member of: House of Lords select committee dealing with disabled prisoners; Criminal Justice Alliance; Rehabilitation of Offenders Act Review, Management Advisory Group; HM Prison Service Voluntary Community Sector Advisor; Fellow of the RSA by invitation; Specialist Advisor to the Home Affairs Committee Inquiry into the Rehabilitation of  Offenders; Specialist Advisor on the Public Inquiry into the death of Zahid Mubarek at Feltham.

    Beverley Thompson

    Beverley started her career as a Probation Officer in London before moving on to manage one of the first multi disciplinary teams focused on diverting juveniles from custody.

    She joined NACRO as Director for Race and Criminal Justice Services where she developed numerous resettlement projects with Prison and Probation colleagues.

    On leaving Nacro she joined HMPS as Race and Equalities Advisor to the Director General operating as a member of the NOMS Board. She successfully led the organisation through the 5 year programme of action following the findings of the CRE investigation.

     She was seconded as Chief Officer to lead Northamptonshire Probation through to Trust status.

     

    Trevor Williams

    Trevor started his working life with Essex Police.  After graduating from Southampton University he joined the Prison Service and progressed through the ranks to become governing Governor, first at Ranby prison and then at Whitemoor.  He finished his time with the Prison Service as Head of Security moving first to the Correctional Policy Unit in the Home Office and then to the private sector as Operations and New Business Director, Premier Prison Services.  He returned to the Home Office in 2003 to open the Office for Contracted Prisons.  In November 2004 he was appointed as the Regional Offender Manager for the East of England and further to that was appointed DOM, Director of Offender Management in April 2009.