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Cable Community News

Editorial: Why the Cable will be shining a light on child imprisonment

The Cable's investigations lead introduces our new long-term reporting strategy that puts impact at its heart – starting with a deep-dive on child prisons and exclusion from society.

School exclusion, child imprisonment and a state of punishment

Filton 18: ‘The more you oppress people, the more they will rise’

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Features

Are self-swab kits ‘the start of the end of sexual violence’, or could they cause more harm than good?

Against a backdrop of chronic underreporting of sexual assaults, thousands of self-administered rape test kits have been distributed across Bristol, targeting university campuses. But are users, already coping with trauma, being given the clarity they need to make informed choices?

Illustration featuring the text "The Debrief" in bold red letters, with elements including a microphone, a house, and abstract face silhouettes, all set against a dark blue background. Logo of 'The Bristol Cable' featured on the bottom right.

The Debrief

Listen: The Debrief – what a leaked police report revealed about racial inequalities in stop-and-search

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No to Section 60

Black children and adults strip searched 25 times more often than white peers in Avon and Somerset, leaked report reveals

Police and crime commissioner candidates on knife crime, institutional racism and public health policing

Avon and Somerset is going to the polls to elect the region's next crime commissioner. We took them to task on their priorities and strategic vision for policing.

How a media backlash led to a St Paul’s woman’s dramatic release from prison

In 1933 Mary Burridge, a poor mother of five, was sentenced to a month’s hard labour after stealing a few items of food at Easter. But after a national outcry over her treatment, a wealthy lawyer flew to Cardiff to free her from prison.

Bristol rogue trader slapped with criminal order after victims built dossier to expose him

Lewis Thomas, who operated anonymous carpentry businesses on social media, has six months to pay back £5,000 after pleading guilty to fraudulent practices.

‘An intolerable anachronism’: it’s 60 years since the last hanging took place in Bristol

On 17 December 1963, the final judicial execution in our city brought a long history of local executions to an end. We look back on what happened in Horfield in 1963, and the campaign to end the death penalty.

Listen: Bristol Unpacked with filmmaker Aodh Breathnach on surviving being stabbed – and documenting its impact on him

With knife crime a tragically common part of life in Bristol and other cities, Neil talks to Aodh about the psychological trauma of being the victim of an attack, and the process of recovery.

St Paul’s, through the eyes of the reverend patrolling for peace

For years, the Reverend Dawnecia Palmer – a United Nations Peacemaker – has worked on Bristol's inner-city streets. After a recent spate of stabbings rocked St Paul's, she's praying for an end to the 'pandemic of the blade'.