A prison cell at the Galleries of Justice. © Galleries of Justice

The Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, will visit NCCL’s Galleries of Justice on September 17 2008 to learn how the NCCL (National Centre for Citizenship and the Law) is meeting its objective to ‘Keep Kids Away from Crime and out of Prison’.

The Galleries of Justice in Nottingham’s Lace Market was once the city's courts and prisons from the 1780s to the 1980s, which inspired the NCCL to use it both for its museum and for an innovative citizenship and crime prevention programme.

Chief Executive of the Galleries of Justice (NCCL), Tim Desmond, announced that the museum would widen its aims to include keeping young people away from crime when he took up the post in May 2006.

As well as citizenship sessions with local schoolchildren onsite the Galleries of Justice has developed several crime reduction and citizenship resources, many of which are available on its website, such as the award-winning Rizer site, which educates young people and their parents about the consequences of crime.

Confiscated guns and knives displayed at the Galleries of Justice Museum of Crime and Punishment. © NCCL Galleries of Justice, Nottingham

Apart from seeing the work of the NCCL, the Baroness will gather first-hand feedback from pupils of Fairham Community College and Bluebell Hill Primary School. This will aid the work of a committee of legal professionals the Baroness set up in London to increase young people’s access to public legal education.

“The fact that the Attorney General is bringing her committee up to Nottingham is a great testament to the success of our citizenship programmes with young people," said Tim Desmond. "Our aim is to put Nottingham on the map for preventing crime rather than suffering from it.”

NCCL's Galleries of Justice is the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law. © NCCL Galleries of Justice

Fighting Nottingham’s image as the gun capital of Britain, the NCCL is planning to spread its early intervention initiatives throughout Nottingham with the help of One Nottingham, the city’s local strategic partnership, with the further aim of delivering them nationally.

Alan Given, Nottingham’s chief executive of the Crime and Drugs, will give the Baroness a presentation of One Nottingham’s early intervention work.

The Galleries of Justice was awarded the Gulbenkian Award for the most innovative museum project in 2003, and was crowned ‘Museum of the year 2007’ at the Renaissance Heritage Awards.