Free Republic

The Ministry of Justice is recruiting pagan chaplains to provide “religious care” at prisons across the country – with annual salaries of up to £29,ooo – despite many of the recruiting prisons facing guard shortages, Islamic extremist inmates, and drug epidemics. “The job holder will provide for the religious care of prisoners and staff in the Pagan faith tradition and appropriate pastoral care for all irrespective of faith or tradition,” one job description for a role covering Dartmoor, Channings Wood, and Exeter prisons reads. Applicants would be expected to “lead open ritual, officiate in Rites of Passage, and run workshops...

The British government has passed a law granting posthumous pardons to thousands of men who were convicted under now-abolished anti-homosexuality laws, and allowing those who are still alive to have their criminal records wiped clean. The Ministry of Justice said Tuesday the pardons apply to men convicted for consensual same-sex relations before homosexuality was decriminalized several decades ago. Men living with convictions can apply to the government to have their names cleared. …

The Russian government has approved a draft bill that would allow it to seize foreign state assets, without warning. The move is seen as a tit-for-tat gesture, following Western court cases involving Russian firms. According to the new draft bill, Russia will be able to seize foreign state assets from countries which infringe on Russia’s jurisdictional immunity, according to the Russian press. The Ministry of Justice said the new law is meant to bring parity to the existing "jurisdictional imbalance" between Russia and other countries. In other words, Russia will now seize the state assets of other countries in proportion...

The courts may be privatized in a justice shake-up that could save the Ministry of Justice £1 billion ($1.51 billion) a year. The plans would free the courts from Treasure control, placing court buildings and thousands of staff in the hands of private companies. … Fears that privatization would erode the independence of the courts would be allayed by placing the courts under a Royal Charter, as has been proposed for the regulation of the press. …