For those in the justice system, the apparatus is focused primarily on risk mitigation rather than addressing the needs and behaviours of the individual to help reduce offending.

To address this, User Voice is advocating for the following, based on our extensive insights, to increase community safety:

• Incorporation of peer support at every stage of person’s journey from custody to the community as part of their sentence. This will provide credible role models utilising those with lived experience of the justice system to assist those currently going through the system in mentoring or signposting roles.
• Commitment to regular one-to-one appointments between a service user and a member of probation staff taking a relational approach, taking into consideration their needs, as well as risk mitigations to work towards positive outcomes, rather than these meetings being a ‘tick box’ exercise.
• A move away from a focus on punishment to incentivisation for those in the community – positive reinforcement that rewards rather than just punishes.
• Where possible, building greater links between probation staff and local authorities in relation to housing provision and welfare. In general, more effective communication is needed where probation must be clear on what they can or cannot assist service users with.
• Flexibility around how appointments with probation officers enable those with disabilities, mental health and neurodiverse conditions, childcare responsibilities, work or training commitments, and organised crime affiliations to comply with their licence (i.e., The Blended Supervision Model).
• A trauma informed approach when dealing with people who have experienced custody. User Voice believes that prison causes harm to individuals which compounds the many other traumas they may have or are facing. Utilising trauma informed approaches will aid the reduction in offending in ways that punitive approaches alone won’t as they will not address the causes of the crimes committed.
• Better opportunities to take part in unpaid work where the individual is upskilled and treated in a humane manner. Unpaid work should be seen as an opportunity to help a person’s prospects rather than just another opportunity to punish them. Unpaid work assignments should consider individual needs and abilities (e.g., disabilities and mental health and neurodiverse conditions).
• Greater focus on accommodating neurodiverse individuals in understanding the terms of their licence conditions and providing them appropriate adjustments throughout the justice system. This approach would also benefit those with low literacy levels.
• Clinical care for those in the criminal justice system is patchy, especially in relation to mental health and access to prescribed medication. Better continuity of care from community to custody and vice versa is needed to make sure service users can access the care they are entitled t