Open Letter to the Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood: “You have to listen to victims & communities”
The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Ministry of Justice, London SW1H 9AJ
16/7/24
Dear Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State:
I write regarding your first ministerial statement (12.7.24) and your plans to “stop the impending collapse of the criminal justice system”. Is early release the answer to this crisis or we just trying to buy time?
The Restorative Justice for All International Institute (“RJ4All”) welcomes your government’s commitment and early action to improve the public experience and indeed perception of how justice is delivered including incapacitation. I am sure I speak on behalf of the entire restorative justice movement, when I ask that as you develop your new policies and invest in further punitive measures that you include the voice, and address the needs and realities, of harmed parties (victims) and our communities.
Whilst we look forward to scrutinising and supporting a more humane approach to serving harmed and harming parties, I must express my early concern in making sure that the communities we serve are included in your decision-making processes, especially those directly affecting them. This request should resonate with the Prime Minister, as he promised us to return politics to public service.
I write in the hope that our institute and your Ministry establish a critical friendship that will allow the development of a restorative justice dialogue between your officials and the communities that we represent. We are all desperate to see a new government that is willing to share power with those directly affected by harm and truly engages in an inclusive and participatory democracy.
During the years of the Department for Constitutional Affairs directed by the then Lord Chancellor Charlie Falconer, I had the opportunity to serve as its Human Rights Advisor experiencing first-hand the importance of setting up from the outset a strategy that has the buy-in from those it aims to serve. My first open letter to you advocates for reforms that respect the needs and wishes of all parties involved when harm takes place while considering the crucial role of restorative justice communities.
This letter aims to raise your officials’ awareness about the restorative justice work that we have been carrying out, empowering local communities to “speak up” and strengthen our democracy. We are particularly proud of our local pilot of building the world’s first restorative justice post-code, and I invite your officials to visit us in SE16 London to witness the power of our community in action. Secondly, it aims to start our constructive relationship with your Ministry by requesting a meeting and an open channel of communication.
RJ4All has led several discussions on criminal justice reform using evidence and by remaining neutral, non-partisan and focused on enabling our communities’ voice. I look forward to hearing from you.
Prof. Theo Gavrielides, PhD, Barrister (non-practising)
Founder & Director
Restorative Justice for All International Institute (RJ4All)
RJ4All’s position on prisons
There were 87,726 people in prison on 30 June 2024. The proven reoffending rate for the July to September 2022 cohort was 26.5%.
There are currently 123 prisons (107 male prisons, 12 female, and 4 under 18) with a useable operational capacity of 88,987. The average direct cost per prisoner was estimated in 2023 to be £33,628 but taking into account all other resource expenditure this cost rises to £51,1081.
There were 308 deaths in custody in the year to June 2024, a 2% decrease from last year. The number of self-harm incidents in prison rose 24% in the year to March 2024, with the rate of self-harm incidents per 1,000 people increasing 5% in female establishments and increasing 32% in male establishments. The annualised rate of self-harm per 100 children in the CYPSE increased by 119% in the quarter to March 2024 compared to the same quarter last year, standing at 420.9 incidents per 100 children and young people per year.
Looking at the financial implications for the youth justice system, putting one young offender in prison costs as much as £140,000 per year (£100,000 in direct costs and £40,000 in indirect costs once they are released) (Knuutila, 2010). Two thirds of the Youth Justice Board budget, or about £300 million a year, is spent on prisons, while the money it uses for prevention is roughly one-tenth of its budget (Youth Justice Board, 2009).
It is shocking that the cost for keeping one young person in a university is around £9k compared to the £140k for keeping them in prison! Therefore, I cannot help addressing what is so obvious (and yet distant) in allowing us to safely claim that the current approach is failing, and that the early release of prisoners will simply not solve the problem. While your policy is aiming to “buy time” for the prison service to find its feet, the probation service must be wondering how it can support such a change. RJ4All works in the community and therefore we must also ask what our role is, and what is your Ministry going to do to support our sector and our communities.
RJ4All’s position on inequality, crime and community tensions
RJ4All strongly believes that the root causes to societal problems such as poverty, disadvantage and inequality are found in the abuse of power, whether this resides within individuals, institutions, or governments. We know that for communities to prosper and to address the reasons that lead to community tensions and conflicts, we must provide holistic solutions to local poverty, disadvantage, and power abuse.
I set up RJ4All to do exactly what it says on the tin, offering “restorative justice for all”. A barrister myself, I have experienced first-hand the shortcomings of the formal delivery of justice. RJ4All does not dismiss the significant offer of the criminal justice system. We want to strengthen it through the complementary offer of restorative justice. Restorative justice has gained a lot of interest by governments around the world, especially for its crime prevention and rehabilitation successes. At RJ4All, we apply restorative justice not merely as a practice for preventing and reducing harm, but more importantly as a way of living and as a moral compass that shifts community focus onto solutions and the future. We also believe that a bio-power that exists to organically rebalance power abuse that leads to violence is found in our humanity, as this is manifested through community and individual action. Shared threads, such as the pandemic, highlighted the significant contribution of this bio-power without which critical services would have collapsed and suffering would have been even worse.
Two key underlying restorative justice values are power-sharing and involvement in decision-making. Our central methodological approach is community dialogue delivered in a safe, equal and voluntary manner. As an evidence-driven NGO, we set up a pilot to test this position. This is carried out in SE16 London and aims to build the world’s first restorative justice postcode. The pilot was founded on the belief that community cohesion and resilience cannot truly and sustainably be achieved if structural and systemic changes are not achieved locally. To achieve these changes, we must enter into a process of sharing power, especially for local decision-making processes and service delivery. As world experts in the implementation of restorative justice as a method and ethos for structural societal changes, we use its underlying values and practices to achieve this power sharing, and the SE16 pilot provides solid evidence of its transformative nature. Learning from the mistakes of ‘restorative justice cities’, we know that quick-fix, top-down approaches to create long-lasting systemic changes lack community buy-in, and thus fail. Our model is built on the principle that it rests in the hands of the community not only because it is delivered by a community-led, voluntary organisation, but more importantly because it is owned by residents and local stakeholders.
Our model is not for us to own, but for diverse communities to use with our support. We want to see the SE16 pilot being replicated to other postcodes across the UK, and directly benefiting these communities. It is also important that scaling-up is not achieved only in relation to the pilot’s expansion into new locations, but also through the development of new routes of community engagement and virtual connections in the existing SE16 pilot. We request that we meet with your officials to discuss our pilot and how we can expand its positive impact across the UK.
In response to RJ4All’s position, the Attorney General’s Office has acknowledged the importance of incorporating restorative justice into the discussion. They also make sure to collaborate closely with the Lord Chancellor to support victims and deliver justice effectively.
Examples of past related campaigning work by RJ4All
House of Lords debates on the Victims Bill (now an Act) resulting in the work being mentioned twice in the live debates.
Levelling-up Commission – oral and written evidence resulting in the adoption of our recommendation in their report.
Ministry of Justice resulting in the Minister asking for more information and referring us to the Home Office for further engagement and support of the postcode pilot.
Several press releases resulting in mainstream media coverage including the press such as our local newspaper Southwark News, My London and London Post.
