A section on Home Office research summarizes the results of a study of ethnicity and contacts with the police, public attitudes toward police, and police powers and suspects' rights under the revised PACE Codes of Practice. A brief section on probation news notes that the probation service is likely to be renamed, and its staff may become "corrections officers" as part of a set of changes being considered by the Home Secretary to boost public confidence in alternatives to imprisonment. A section on prison news reports that prison inspection reports will henceforth be published more quickly and lead to greater openness under new arrangements. Activities of the Criminal Justice Consultative Council are also summarized, followed by a review of the work of various criminal justice reform organizations. Some reform activities pertain to reconsideration of the government's proposals for a community safety order, consultations on the establishment of a national youth justice board, employment services for ex-offenders, prison overcrowding, and victim services. Sections also summarize activities related to prison inspections, the parole board, the Serious Fraud Office, recorded crime in England and Wales, Prison Service reports, time intervals for criminal proceedings in magistrates' courts, and statistics on drug addiction in the United Kingdom for 1996. Remaining sections cover the use of police powers under PACE, the Crown Prosecution Service, and reports on the Prison Service.