The issue of penal and criminal law reform has received considerable attention in recent years, and a number of significant reports have been published on it, as outlined in Table 1, below. The Joint Committee on Justice and Equality, in revisiting the subject in 2017, sought to combine this evidence with the insights and perspectives of a number of stakeholder groups in order to identify specific legal or policy actions which can be taken to reduce the number of people who receive custodial sentences, improve conditions in prison, and improve support for prisoners post-release.