Dr. Hindpal Singh Bhui : Three-year Visiting Professor appointment

Congratulations to Hindpal Singh Bhui who has been awarded a three-year Visiting Professorship at the Centre for Criminology to commence in Trinity Term.

Hindpal is an Inspection Team Leader at HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP). He leads inspections of prisons and other forms of custody, and heads inspection of the immigration detention estate in the UK.  Hindpal has advised and trained prison monitors in various countries in Europe, the Middle East and Far East. He is an expert inspector for the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), part of the Council of Europe.  

During an ongoing project on human rights-based monitoring of detention at the borders of Europe, he has researched practices in Turkey, Greece, Italy and Hungary with colleagues at the University of Oxford. He has developed partnerships with National Preventive Mechanisms across Europe, sharing operational experience and learning though professional exchange. He has led various thematic reviews on custody in England and Wales, including on foreign prisoners, the experiences of Muslim prisoners, and immigration detention, and is chair of the HMIP policy forum on prisoner rehabilitation and release planning.

Hindpal was formerly a probation officer in London, working in the community and prison; he won national awards for his work in both contexts. He has also been a criminal justice lecturer and is a former editor of the Probation Journal. He has published articles and book chapters on prisons, probation, foreign prisoners and immigration detention and an edited book on Race and Criminal Justice (Sage). He is a regular speaker at national and international conferences and events.  He has BA in Politics, an MSc in Criminology, an MA and Diploma in Social Work, and a PhD in Applied Social Science.  His PhD research focused on issues of legitimacy and coherence in the management of foreign prisoners and immigration detainees.

In Oxford he will contribute to teaching around issues of immigration detention, race and gender and research methods at the Centre for Criminology.

He will also contribute to a seminar on immigration detention co-hosted with the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights.