User Voice was founded by Mark Johnson MBE, an ex-offender and former drug abuser. Mark is the best-selling author of Wasted, and respected social commentator.

Mark’s story is just one example of the transformative change which we strive to achieve for many others. Mark’s direct contact with the criminal justice system, and later as an employer of people who’d been in prison and consultant for government and other charities, left him convinced of the urgent need to create a model of service user engagement that is fair for all involved.

We began our work in 2009, pioneering our prison council model which demonstrated how prisons can be safer and more effective when people in them have a say in how they are run. User Voice breaks down the barriers: the ‘them and us’, enabling prison staff and people in prison to work cooperatively together to improve prison environments, benefiting both the people in them and those that run them. For example, reducing prison violence and providing support for those suffering mental health crises. 

Our networks act as a sponge for experience, utilizing our lived experience consultants to gather the views and thoughts of hundreds more people which we then condense into solution focused reports, evaluations, briefings and publications for policy makers and those who commission, design and deliver services.