As the specialists in amplifying the lived experience of people with convictions to drive meaningful change, User Voice has advocated for many years for a Justice system that heals as much as it punishes, because this is truly the most effective way to create safer communities for all.   

We therefore welcome David Gauke’s Sentencing Review which overall is a brave strategy recognising that tackling the drivers of crime are key to reducing reoffending and that prison being used as the default social service is a waste of public money. Effective justice is a key component of a safe and thriving society, but we know that punishment alone doesn’t change people for the better: it deepens trauma, intensifies resentment and perpetuates crime. 

We particularly welcome the recommendation that community-based alternatives will be recommended over short-term incarceration. However, with a regularly occurring caseload of sometimes up to 130 people on Probation per Probation Officer the service that will be key to achieving transformative change in the reoffending of people in the community is absolutely at its limit. This is coupled with public services under huge strain, and therefore also unable to deal with the myriad of root causes of crime like homelessness, addiction and the impacts of poverty and community breakdown. 

Therefore, the forthcoming Government Spending Review and its trailed focus on technology enabled improvements and reform of public services must step in to provide investment to ensure concrete success in this strategy of sentencing reform, otherwise so many of the problems facing our hugely overcrowded prisons will just be transferred into the community. 

We also welcome The Sentencing Review’s focus on rewarding good conduct in Prisons rather than punishment-based regimes that simply don’t incentivise or inspire those in prison to change. However, this has to be matched by investment in the permanent availability of access to positive activities, like skills building through work and education courses,  Prison Councils where prisoners co create solutions that lead to safer and more effective prisons alongside prison staff, as well as more formal rehabilitation interventions that address the drivers of offending behaviour including mental health and drug addiction support, programmes that develop good citizenship, and access to restorative justice and most importantly comprehensive through the gate resettlement programmes. 

You can read our full submission to the review here. 

Lucie Russell

CEO