young adults
Annmarie Lewis, Head of Criminal Justice at the Trust, highlights what’s coming up for the T2A Transition into Adulthood campaign
If you’ve been following our work, you may have noticed a pause in updates from the criminal justice programme and T2A. But that pause wasn’t silence, it was reflection. A moment to listen, learn, and recalibrate.
Since stepping into this role last November, I’ve had the privilege of immersing myself in the legacy of T2A, while continuing the journey I’ve been on for over 30 years as a pioneer and champion in the broader justice reform movement. And in recent months, it’s become clear: we’re at a crossroads.
We’ve seen policy shifts that feel more reactive than reflective. The Sentencing Review included some welcome progressive elements, but we were disappointed that it failed to recognise young adults as a distinct group with specific needs, despite our substantive submission. This omission, alongside the Sentencing Council’s new guidelines, reflects a troubling trend, the manipulation of the ‘two-tier justice’ narrative.
For decades, under-represented groups have experienced a two-tier system in practice, a reality that has driven long-standing campaigns for racial and gender justice. The current political weaponisation of this rhetoric is not only flawed, but unsafe. It risks undermining progress, embedding regressive policies, and distorting public understanding of justice reform. We must challenge this narrative with clarity, truth, and strategy.
A Time to Rethink, Reframe and Reimagine
This isn’t about despair, it’s about direction. We’ve taken a step back to ask: What does justice look like for young adults today? And more importantly: Who gets to shape that vision?
That’s why we convened a powerful and diverse group on 30 June — people from different communities, professions, and lived experiences, each bringing their own insights and passions — for a day of deep conversation, bold imagining, and commitment to radical change.
Our workshop, Shaping Justice Together: A New Vision for Young Adults, was more than an event, it was a powerful moment of collective intention. A call to co-create a new blueprint for a justice system that sees young adults not as problems to be solved or issues to be fixed, but as people shaped by their experiences, many of whom have lived through significant harm. We aim to develop a vision that embraces the full complexity of young adult lives without diminishing it, that doesn’t ask what’s wrong with you, but rather what happened to you, and seeks to restore, not erase, the humanity of everyone involved.
Imagine a system that understands the duality of being both survivors and, at times, agents of harm. One that recognises their actions, choices and behaviours cannot be separated from the contexts they’ve lived through, often shaped by trauma, inequity, and unmet needs.
Imagine an approach that holds space for healing, accountability, and restoration, not only for young adults, but also for those impacted by their actions. One that believes growth is possible, change can happen, and reconciliation can emerge when the right care and support are in place.
Now imagine a system that not only recognises the dual nature of state and social harm — where children and young adults can be harmed by state agencies as well as by social inequality — but also begins to disrupt these cycles. Dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline: the systemic pattern where disadvantaged young people, particularly from racialised communities, are pushed out of education and into the criminal justice system. And beyond that, recognising the growing reality of the prison-to-prison pipeline: the ways in which prisons themselves become criminogenic spaces that deepen harm and entrench cycles of offending, not only for young adults inside, but also for the staff working with those young adults.
Alarmingly, we are seeing increasing numbers of young staff committing offences, particularly within prison environments, and crossing the threshold from employee to prisoner themselves — caught in the very system they once served. These are not isolated incidents; they are symptoms of the acute trauma and substantial difficulties facing the whole staff body, and a system in urgent need of transformation. Young adult staff, many of whom carry their own lived experience, need the same care, compassion, support, safety, and accountability to do this work well. Healing must be systemic, not selective. We need a system that understands justice isn’t just about those impacted by it, but also about those working within it.
This is not just a shift in language, but a shift in values, and a focus on what works. A move from harm to healing, from isolation to inclusion, from conflict to connection. One that honours young adults’ potential, rather than simply punishing their mistakes, and strengthens the communities around them, rather than further tearing them apart.
At the recent workshop we explored the map, the model, the modus operandi, and the missing pieces, and the energy in the room was electric! We’ll share key outcomes in a future blog, but for now, we’re excited to announce that the second in the series will take place this September.
This is a call to reimagine justice not as punishment, but as a pathway forward, rooted in fairness, compassion, responsibility, and renewed hope for all.
Narrative Change: From Harm to Healing
We’re not alone in this. Across the sector, funders and partners are coming together to challenge harmful rhetoric and build a shared strategy for narrative transformation. The idea of a ‘two-tier justice system’ that favours women or other disadvantaged, marginalised, and under-represented groups isn’t just misleading, it’s dangerous. It obscures the structural inequalities that have long defined our justice system, particularly for young adults from racialised and marginalised communities, including young women and girls.
We’re working closely with the Corston Independent Funders Coalition, the Harm to Healing Coalition, and UK narrative change with partner funders, to align our efforts, reduce duplication, and amplify what works. The Harm to Healing Coalition, born out of the work of Dr Patrick Williams, Temi Mwale, and the H2H Resource Group has helped set a strong narrative focus for reimagining justice through a new lens. Because the truth is there’s incredible work happening at the grassroots.
Just look at Spark Inside’s recent roundtable, which brought together young men, practitioners, and policymakers to reimagine wellbeing and racial equity in custody, building on the work of their https://www.sparkinside.org/campaign/being-well-being-equal Being Well Being Equal campaign and report. Or Daddyless Daughters, who are pioneering transformative work with girls and young women affected by family breakdown, abuse, and adversity, helping them build healthy, sustainable lives and relationships, and preventing criminal and sexual exploitation. These are just two examples of the powerful, community-rooted work that we are supporting to drive change from the ground up.
What’s Next for T2A?
Over the next year, we’re focused on four key priorities:
– Synthesising 20 years of T2A evidence into a clear, actionable vision for young adult justice, and embedding systems change across policing, prisons, probation, public affairs and public policy.
– Embedding lived and learned experience at the heart of our work through a new T2A Alliance advisory panel and group
– Advancing racial and gender justice by challenging systemic bias and centring equity in all we do
– Driving strategic communications to support the next phase of T2A and counter harmful narratives
We know the road ahead won’t be easy. But we also know that change doesn’t come from waiting; it comes from working together to drive radical reformation and bring about total transformation. Not just of systems, but of the very vision of justice itself.
What comes next doesn’t have to be a system at all, but a radically different future rooted in humanity, safety, and love.
Annmarie Lewis, July 2025
Offensive Weapons Homicide Reviews are unlikely to save young adult lives finds a new Centre for Crime and Justice Studies report. A new duty to review homicides involving offensive weapons is unlikely to achieve its aim of reducing weapons-enabled homicides, whatever else it may accomplish, the report says.
Offensive Weapons Homicide Reviews (OWHRs) were introduced by the previous Conservative Government in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. Their stated purpose is to help national and local agencies understand the causes of serious violence and prevent future weapons-enabled homicides.
The report by Dr Susie Hulley and Dr Tara Young, published by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, examines the potential benefits and risks of this new duty, particularly its impact on young adult safety. The authors analysed evidence about existing homicide reviews, such as Domestic Violence Homicide Reviews, which have been in operation for several decades. Homicide reviews, they argue, are not without merit. The research found that reviews can offer additional, important information about what happened, not least of all to a victim’s family and friends. However, the report finds that the recommendations from homicide reviews are frequently not acted upon, raising serious concerns about whether the learning from these cases is being effectively implemented – particularly given the lack of statutory duty or resources to do so.
If, after the pilot, OWHRs are rolled out nationally, the report provides recommendations that could mitigate some of the identified risks of existing homicide reviews, including for a publicly accessible national database of findings and recommendations. However, the authors conclude that OWHRs are unlikely to prevent weapon-enabled homicides involving young adults, and urge the Government to put well-evidenced interventions that reduce serious violence at the forefront of its approach to serious violence.
Authors of the report, Dr Susie Hulley and Dr Tara Young said:
“In light of these findings and the government’s ambitious target to halve knife crime over the next decade, we urge the Government to reconsider the cost effectiveness of a national rollout of OWHRs, and to instead focus on well-evidenced interventions that reduce serious violence and support young adults to flourish.”
Helen Mills, Head of Programmes at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, said:
“If OWHRs are rolled out this report highlights important learning about how they can best work. However, we have some scepticism about whether this is the right approach. Clear evidence already exists about how to best prevent and respond to serious violence, and that the particular needs of young adults are often overlooked. Yet good practice remains frustratingly fragmented, and lacking the long-term sustainable funding it needs.
The Alliance for Youth Justice briefing ‘Adultifying Youth Custody: Learning lessons on transition to adulthood from the use of youth custody for young adults’ explores how the Government’s decision to temporarily raise the age young people transfer from the children’s secure estate to the adult secure estate from 18 to 19 resulted in a 253% increase in the number of over 18s in the child estate. The briefing highlights the lost opportunity for systemic reform during this time and warns of the long-term risk of blurring the boundaries between youth and adult justice systems.
Key recommendations include:
Custody as a last resort
The Ministry of Justice must recognise the vulnerability and potential victimisation of children and young people who come into contact with the law, along with the genuine harm imprisonment brings. Where imprisonment is unavoidable, custody should treat children as children, with an emphasis on rehabilitation over punishment. Secure Children’s Homes must become the norm.
Remove the Youth Custody Service from HMPPS and create a Department for Children:
Child First policies must be at the heart of youth justice, so we’re calling on the YCS to be removed from HMPPS. We propose a new Department for Children to bring the care of all vulnerable children into one place.
Ensure the distinct character of the children’s secure estate, keeping it separate from the adult secure estate:
The children’s secure estate cannot become an overflow for a failing adult prison system. The children’s secure estate must be restricted for the care of under 18s only, other than on a case by case basis.
Develop a comprehensive plan for young adults in custody:
With the lessons learned from the temporary transitions policy change, HMPPS must create a far-reaching policy that addresses young adults’ distinct needs, entitlements, and maturity. The Ministry of Justice should conduct a review of domestic and international models for young adult custody to determine the most effective approach.
Supportive transitions on a case-case basis:
The Ministry of Justice must identify all barriers to case by case decision-making on when a young person transition from youth to adult custody. These decisions must always centre the individual young person’s wants and needs. There also needs to be continuity in the education, youth work provision and other services they are able to access when making the transition.
Background
A new MoJ ‘process evaluation’ of Newham Y2A Probation Hub, a specialist youth to adulthood transitions service, which Barrow Cadbury Trust’s T2A (Transition to Adulthood Alliance) has supported for several years, has concluded that it is a successful model. The process evaluation took two years to look in detail at the implementation of this specialist young adult Hub in East London.
The model is based on T2A evidence of what works for young adults. Over the last 20 years, T2A has focused on how best justice services can support young adults to build positive lives away from crime. T2A’s core ask is for a distinct service that takes the best elements from youth justice services and develops them for young adult use. These services would be ‘young adult first,’ trauma-informed, strengths-based, and build strong pro-social identities.
The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), with support from the Ministry of Justice, London Probation Service and the Treasury’s Shared Outcomes fund, set up the Hub in March 2022 to respond to the specific needs of young adults on probation in Newham. It was purposefully and carefully designed to meet the specific needs of young adult, with input from young adults themselves.
The set up
A purpose-built space was developed so that young adults could be supported separately to older adults. Young adults were consulted during the design stage and all staff had specialist training in trauma-informed practice, neurodiversity, and developmental maturation. Staff worked with young adults on strengths-based and future-focused approaches. Flexibility around breach and enforcement was part of the ethos, and young adults’ successes were celebrated – a model adapted from youth justice services.
Alongside the mandatory service provided by probation, probation staff also supported young adults to access voluntary sector services such as mentoring and coaching, speech and language support, restorative justice, and housing support, along with education, training, and employment advice. Those young adults with mental health needs or who face extra neurodiversity challenges could access creative therapy.
Findings
Barrow Cadbury Trust’s ambition in supporting this project was that the Hub would be a template for the delivery of probation services to young adults across England and Wales.
The key finding of the process evaluation, was that the Hub had the potential to shape young adults’ maturational development and enable them to develop self-belief, build resilience, and regulate their behaviour.
Staff were positive about the impact of the Hub on young adults’ compliance and engagement, notably in the successful completion of sentences, as well as on young adults’ lives. The bedrock of the service is developing responsibility and forward planning skills that are all important for desistance. The evaluation found that staff were well-informed about the specific challenges facing young adults and supported them in responding to trauma in an informed, and person-centred way. Multiple services all on one site meant same day referrals were possible, and there were relatively short waiting times for first appointments, so that momentum built early on and made building relationships easier.
The evaluation highlighted the difficult life experiences that these young adults have faced in their short lives, including social and economic disadvantage, poverty and racial discrimination, reflecting the fact that Newham is the second most disadvantaged borough in London. Many had high levels of support needs because of their lack of maturity, their thinking, behaviour, attitudes and lifestyles. The evaluators recognised that these adversities and life changes take time to work through and overcome. Practitioners acknowledged this: “It takes time for young people who haven’t had the same benefits, the positive inputs, the positive attachments, the community. If they haven’t had that, they need time, and time isn’t two years … for long lasting change.”
How the Hub supported young adults
This model of delivering probation services to young adults, where the emphasis is on preparing them for a stable adulthood and independence, is significantly different to the offer available to older adults. Six core values – safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment, and inclusivity are the essence of the Hub’s approach.
Although it is not the function of probation to turn children into adults, probation services can support the goal of reducing offending by assisting in the young person’s journey to independent adulthood. Young adults interviewed had a sense that maturity is something that develops and with the support of the Hub staff they felt empowered to put in place the building blocks to change their lifestyles.
It wasn’t just the young adults who recognised the benefits of the Hub. Staff welcomed the greater professional autonomy and flexibility they had as well as the advantages of holding pre-breach interviews before proceedings were necessary.
Young adults found the Hub a safe and welcoming area to engage, both with their probation officer and in therapeutic activities. This holistic approach made a crucial contribution to long-term positive outcomes. The wraparound support gives young adults the space to grow and learn about themselves.
The evaluation found that the Hub’s emphasises on cultural awareness and gender-specific services was appreciated by staff and young adults. This emphasis ensures that the diverse backgrounds and experiences of individuals are respected and valued, fostering a sense of belonging and understanding. The gender-specific approach recognises the unique needs and challenges faced by women, and how important tailored support is in a separate space, alongside other women’s services.
Outcomes/Experiences
One objective of the hub is to improve partnership working and information sharing between services so that young adults are less likely to fall through the net when children’s services support falls away at 18. The evaluation found that staff were able to develop strong, collaborative, trusted relationships with each other, with a shared purpose, and gain knowledge, formal and informally, from specialist professionals, a greater diversity of partners, as well as tapping into ongoing training and development. Probation officers benefitted from more time with young adults due to smaller caseloads.
The future
So far, more than 400 young adults have engaged with probation services in the Y2A Hub. The evaluation has demonstrated that success or failure of the service cannot be captured solely in reoffending data. T2A agrees with the evaluators that stage-specific services which help young people develop into mature adults are crucial. But we also recognise the importance of finding metrics for a young adult’s growth in their outlook, perceptions, maturity and self-identity.
The fact that staff and young adults interviewed were unanimously in favour of rolling out similar hubs in other parts of London and more widely is testament to the value of the model and the careful evidence-informed work that went into its planning. This is an innovation that the Government should be grasping with both hands, in line with its mission to “reduce the barriers to opportunity” and its ambition to tackle violence amongst young people. And the probation service deserves huge credit for putting evidence into practice and in so doing showing that the principles espoused by T2A have benefited young adults involved in the justice system.
This positive evaluation and the 20 years of T2A’s experience strongly underpin the need for young adults to receive specialist support, delivered in dedicated settings.
‘The starting point is not a goal but a collaboration’ – how Barrow Cadbury Trust has used systems change approaches to tackle complex issues in the justice system.
Young adulthood
How do you explain to people who don’t work in criminal justice about the distinct needs of young adults caught up in that system? Well, we held a mini 18th birthday party in our workshop room with balloons and birthday tunes! We then invited them to think back to when they turned 18 (or when someone they know turned 18).
Their reflections from this exercise were revealing and we identified three main themes:
| Feeling overwhelmed and uncertain
| ‘I didn’t have a bloody clue what I wanted to do!’ ‘It was very overwhelming at 18, I was trying to understand my place.’ ‘Overwhelm and excitement – yoyoing between those emotions.’ ‘I had undiagnosed mental health problems.’ |
| Testing boundaries
| ‘Testing boundaries and not always knowing where the boundary is and the repercussions until you’ve crossed it.’ ‘Experimenting with taking responsibility and consequences – it’s a never-ending journey.’ ‘I had a total lack of fear.’ ‘Learning from role models.’ |
| A social construct
| ‘Are you even really an adult at 18? In Sweden, you’re classed as an adult at 21. Adulthood is a social construct. It varies all over the world.’ ‘Are you really an adult at 18?’ ‘They said – but you’re an adult! I thought, oh great, but I still need help from adults!’ |
One attendee said afterward that they ‘particularly enjoyed the visualisation exercise - I mostly forgot that overwhelming jumble of thoughts and emotions around the age of 18.’
The group in question were attendees at the Systems Innovation Network Global Conference, mainly working in sectors such as health and sustainability, where systems thinking has taken root. Two of Justice Futures co-directors Gemma Buckland and Nina Champion, along with Laurie Hunte from the Transition to Adulthood Alliance at Barrow Cadbury Trust and Nadine Smith, a young justice advisor, were facilitating a workshop exploring how systems thinking can help improve outcomes for young adults in the justice system, and why a systems approach to funding is necessary to tackle complex issues and see transformational shifts.
Nadine explained the distinct needs of young adults in the criminal justice system including the fact that their brains are still developing and that the process of maturity doesn’t end at 18. She described the ‘cliff edge’ of services and support stopping and how young adults are often grouped with adults of all ages, whether in court, in custody or on probation, whereas we have a separate system for under-18s. She discussed her work with the Transition to Adulthood Alliance (T2A) and Leaders Unlocked, ensuring that young adults with lived experience are empowered to influence systems change by conducting research, designing services, and speaking to policymakers.
She set out that this is a complex issue as there is not one solution; it’s interconnected, multi-dimensional, and involves multiple and conflicting perspectives. In systems speak, this is known as a ‘wicked challenge’
The criminal justice eco-system
We then got attendees thinking about the different actors in the ecosystem that T2A works with and their multiple and conflicting perspectives. Using a Si Network Actor Mapping canvas, attendees were asked to imagine themselves as young adults, policymakers and practitioners to think about what values, power, mental models and incentives these actors have in the system when it comes to meeting young adults’ distinct needs.
When looking at power, attendees highlighted various types of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power dynamics including physical violence, money, the law, the power to ‘say no’, and even the power of an officer’s uniform. Incentives varied from hitting targets to ‘respect’, serving the community, to wanting a quick exit from the system. Mental models included ‘do the time, do the crime’, ‘prison works’, crime being caused by individual choice rather than societal failures and the ‘punishment v. rehabilitation’ dichotomy. Lastly, the values influencing actors in the ecosystem noted by participants were protection, risk reduction, efficiency, the rule of law, empathy, and suspicion.
The purpose of the exercise was to better understand what’s going on ‘under the surface’ with different actors in the system, so we can then work with the systemic patterns identified productively to affect change in the system.
As one workshop participant reflected ‘one of the most powerful exercises you can do is to step into other people’s shoes in the system.’ Another commented that ‘the ambiguities that arise are interesting.’ And one said it was ‘eye-opening. I could connect directly with some of the issues I’ve noticed in our neighbourhood. [It was] very effective in helping us look at these issues from different perspectives.’
These insights are what these systems tools are designed to bring out – helping people see differently, think differently and then do differently … our tagline at Justice Futures!
If we’d had more time, we would have discussed the insights the group had gained from examining the system from different actors’ perspectives and then used these to identify which leverage or intervention points would have the most long-lasting, positive impacts on the system. This is something that T2A, supported by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, has been navigating for the past two decades, as set out in a recent evaluation report by IVAR.
Changing the funding paradigm
We also used the actor mapping canvas to explore the values, power, incentives and mental models typically found in philanthropic funders, acknowledging that this is shifting (as we explore further below). For example, traditionally philanthropic funders might value learned expertise over lived expertise, favour funding short-term ‘sticking plaster’ solutions by looking for quick fixes, lack diversity, and might use models that promote competition rather than collaboration. They also often exercise some form of power, not only in the resources they hold, but in setting the criteria, timescales, decision-making and monitoring processes of their grants and project proposals.
Barrow Cadbury Trust is an unusual funder by taking a long-term, systemic approach to shifting paradigms. One example is their longstanding support of the Transition to Adulthood Alliance. IVAR recently evaluated this approach to systems change, and we highlighted some of the important key themes and learning from that report:
| Collaboration and relationship-building | ‘The starting point for T2A is not a goal but a collaboration.’
‘The best agendas for systems change work are built from diverse perspectives – no one knows “the right answer” |
| Power dynamics
| ‘Funders need to make a conscious and sustained effort to shift the paradigm in their interactions with others – from oversight to partnership.’
‘Systems change efforts have too often neglected the expertise of people with lived experience of these systems. Supporting their leadership and agency is increasingly recognised as crucial to achieving meaningful change.’ |
| Long-term commitment
| ‘A long-term view can absorb the ups and downs and the capacity to build relationships.’
‘We’re not governed by performance indicators – things taking a long time doesn’t deter us.’ |
| Working with emergence and unpredictability
| ‘Complexity theory captures the reality that over time you will encounter both the expected and unexpected.’
‘Working in and with complexity requires a different mindset and a different approach: dynamic, adaptive, emergent.’ |
IVAR’s findings mirror Catalyst 2030’s open letter for NGOs to sign, calling for funders to take a more systemic approach to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. One of these goals, SDG 16, relates to peaceful and inclusive societies and justice for all.
IVAR drew attention to Barrow Cadbury’s mindset shift, seeing themselves primarily as a systems change partner, rather than a funder. The report found the distinction between ‘being a player, rather than just an enabler’ has been deliberate and intentional, as Barrow Cadbury Trust are proud to both ‘drive and serve.’ This activism is done in collaboration with alliance members and with a vital awareness of the need to ‘out the power dynamic by relational means; listening carefully, responding to challenge, showing respect, being flexible, deferring to greater expertise and building partnershiprelationships not administrative ones.’
We also discussed a report and system map by New Philanthropy Capital showing that advocacy activities aimed at influencing political systems get less than 2% of all money going to criminal justice-focused NGOs and system coordination activities get less than 1%. We also highlighted the findings of two other reports (by Harm 2 Healing and Rosa) which show that grassroots, ‘by and for’ organisations promoting racial and gender justice often miss out on funding due to bureaucracy, a lack of unrestricted funding to support capacity building and the instability and uncertainty of short-term funding.
Laurie highlighted an example of partnership working between funders, where Barrow Cadbury convened a group of philanthropic funders to collaboratively help tackle racial disparities in the criminal justice system and address important issues of capacity building and leadership development for ‘by and for’ organisations.
We used the Berkana Institute’s Two Loops model to demonstrate the transition from the current dominant paradigm (in this case, funders as funders) to the new emergent paradigm (in this case, funders as systems change partners). We wanted to identify some of the ‘seeds of change’ happening globally and to start connecting and illuminating them.
Attendees gave examples of where they had started to see shifts from the current dominant paradigm of ‘funder’ towards ‘systems change partner’. Some interesting examples from around the world were shared, including:
- Children’s Investment Fund Foundation—a global funder which takes a systems change approach by investing in the long term, focusing on root causes, having a high appetite for risk, being flexible, and investing in building a thriving ecosystem and emerging leaders.
- Viable Cities – a challenge-driven, strategic innovation programme in Sweden where people submit ideas as individual organisations and then collaborate with other applicants to design projects to create climate-neutral cities by 2030.
- NCVO – a voluntary sector infrastructure body in the UK which is exploring the use of collaborative funding applications.
It was clear that attendees wanted to see more of these shifts in the future. As the IVAR report found, trusts and foundations are uniquely placed to support systems change as ‘they have the money, the time, and the patience. They can afford to take risks, to shift power, to disrupt, to play a leading role, like Barrow Cadbury Trust, or to be a patient cheerleader. All of these choices are in their gift.’
We hope the workshop gave a small taste of how systems approaches and systemic funding can help tackle complex issues, including in the criminal justice sector. As one attendee concluded, working in these ways helps bring people from ‘systems blindness to systems sight’.
Nina Champion, Gemma Buckland, Nadine Smith and Laurie Hunte
T2A (Transition to Adulthood) Young Adult Voices is a new podcast featuring conversations between eight young adults from across the UK with lived experience of the criminal justice system. Six episodes are now available to listen to and are available on all major platforms by searching ‘Young Adult Voices’ as well as on the T2A website
In each episode, contributors unpack a new topic – covering everything from race and care experience to resettlement and prison education programmes. Their discussions offer wide-ranging insights for professionals in the justice system on how to work more effectively with young adults.
T2A would like to thank Switchback, Leaders Unlocked, the Muslim Women in Prison project, Drive Forward Foundation, and Revolving Doors Agency for supporting the individuals who contributed to the podcast.
Learn more about working with young adults
For more than a decade T2A has been building and commissioning resources to help professionals working with young adults in the criminal justice system. If you want to learn more about working with young adults, look at our guides for practitioners and our research and reports.
T2A Chair Leroy Logan MBE reflects on the findings of the Alliance for Youth Justice’s (AYJ) briefing paper on the transition from the youth to adult justice system – focusing on the experiences of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic young people.
A spotlight on racial disparities
As the briefing suggests, young people who turn 18 while in contact with the justice system face a steep cliff edge. Studies show that this age is a crucial turning point where many young people begin to desist from crime with the right support and interventions. But rather than take advantage of this capacity for change, statutory services fall away. For Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic young people, the transition to the adult justice system can be even more challenging.
This latest briefing from AYJ has cast a harsh spotlight on the failings of our justice system to address the racial disparities that have blighted many young people’s lives. From an early age, many Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic young people find themselves associated with criminal stereotypes. Labelling young people in this way is incredibly damaging, eroding self-belief and making it harder to move towards a pro-social identity. Once Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic children enter the justice system, they are less likely to be diverted, more likely to receive harsher sentences, and more likely to be sent to custody, sentenced or on remand, compared to white children.
“Guilty before proven innocent… you kind of learn authority figures don’t actually care.” – (Young person)
This can create a huge gulf in understanding and trust between Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic young adults and the professionals working in the system. Sadly, these findings confirm what many of us working in the sector already expected. That’s why I welcome AYJ drilling down into the causes of this crisis, and what needs to change to deliver better outcomes. Too often, we focus solely on what’s not working and forget that we must create a roadmap for the future we wish to see.
An over-stretched and under-resourced system
It’s clear that even with a diverse workforce, culturally competent training, and the best will in the world, the probation service is struggling to keep its head above water. A professional quoted in the briefing had this to say: “Record levels of staff sickness, extended sick leave, people fleeing the service in droves – that then exacerbates every other issue we have. We can’t be ambitious, we can’t be progressive, we can’t make many changes if you’re barely able to keep the regime running.” There are many admirable professionals working in the system who want to do better for young adults, but they don’t have the time, resources, or support to implement creative approaches. Without sufficient investment, the system can barely meet young adults’ basic needs – let alone support them to take steps towards a more positive future.
Collaboration with the VCSE sector
In this depressing climate, the work of voluntary and community organisations has become even more vital. Specialist Black and Ethnic Minority-led organisations have an intimate understanding of the communities Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic young people come from and how their experiences inform their behaviour and identity. As the research highlights, these grassroots organisations are well placed to provide nuanced support that recognises these young people’s overlapping needs – support that statutory services would struggle to provide.
These organisations are also more likely to have lived experience embedded in their staff and support services, meaning they can provide peer mentoring and positive role models – both of which are essential components in facilitating the shift towards a pro-social identity.
Ring-fenced funding to commission specialist organisations
I believe that we could take this further by developing a model where specialist Black and Minority-Ethnic led grassroots organisations are commissioned to operate services in their communities. Funding would be ring fenced for these local organisations who have the expertise to deliver the best outcomes. This model could be supported by local roundtables where information and knowledge are shared regularly so that young adults can access support from multiple agencies. Meeting in this way will also help criminal justice agencies better understand how these organisations are well placed to support young adults. Having buy in from all partners will be vital to the success of this model.
The Newham Transition to Adulthood Hub is a great example of how this approach can work in practice. They have a wide variety of services in one space, so staff can consult each other on individual cases and referrals to different services are much easier and more efficient. Regular spotlight sessions are held where different teams share their expertise and explain how their services can benefit young adults.
Grassroots organisations excluded from funding opportunities
Unfortunately, the AYJ’s report found that organisations with strong community links and knowledge are effectively excluded from funding opportunities. They lack the resources to compete with larger organisations who can meet the excessive commissioning processes and compliance requirements demanded by the Ministry of Justice and HMPPS. However, many of these larger organisations lack the knowledge and cultural competence to successfully deliver these services. Shockingly, they often sub-contract their services at a lower rate to the very grassroots organisations that have been denied a place at the table.
It is crucial that the Ministry of Justice and HMPPS immediately reform VCS funding allocation so that specialist Black and Minority-Ethnic led grassroots organisations can build the capacity of their services – ensuring every young person receives age-appropriate, trauma-informed, culturally competent services that reflect their entire lived experience.
A group of leading charities, lawyers, care experienced children and young adults have worked together to produce a new guide for lawyers ‘Dare to Care’.
Care experienced children are up to six times more likely to be criminalised than other children. In 2022, 1% of children in England were in care, but 59% of children in custody in England and Wales had been in care.
It does not have to be this way. Law and policy affecting care experienced children and young adults can be used to achieve fairer outcomes. This guide will help lawyers prevent the unnecessary criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers.
The guide will be a key resource for all lawyers working with children and young adults in the justice system. It provides powerful testimony from children and young adults, as well as the key legal framework and practical tips.
Laura Cooper, Director of Youth Justice Legal Centre (YJLC), which has published Dare to Care as part of its seminal series of youth justice guides said:
“It is incredibly unjust that care experienced children are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system when these are the very children we should be supporting. We are extremely proud to publish this comprehensive legal guide which we know will be a vital resource for practitioners in preventing the unnecessary criminalisation of care experienced children.”
Jordan Morgan, founder of the Policy Forum and Trustee of the Drive Forward Foundation, said:
“To complement this vitally important guide, the Policy Forum is calling for the Justice Select Committee to urgently launch an inquiry into youth diversion schemes and their application to care experienced young people. We warmly welcome collaboration to achieve this aim and to support young people leaving the care system to live a full, dignified life where their aspirations can be met with opportunities.”
Laurie Hunte, T2A Campaign Manager, said:
“For far too long, children and young adults with care experience have been vastly overrepresented in the criminal justice system. That’s why T2A and the Barrow Cadbury Trust are proud to support the publication of this much-needed guide for defence lawyers. Its ultimate aim is to ensure that every child and young adult is treated fairly and that their care experiences are considered and taken into account by criminal justice professionals. We have no doubt that this guide will play a crucial role in reducing the over-criminalisation of children and young adults with care experience.”
Kate Aubrey-Johnson, Director of CRYJ and barrister at Garden Court Chambers, said:
“Care experienced children and young adults deserve lawyers who understand their needs, the legal protections available and the reasons why they are so vulnerable to criminalisation. We are delighted to have worked with the Policy Forum at the Drive Forward Foundation. They are the most impressive group of young people who have, for the first time, explained to lawyers how to represent care experienced young people. Our hope is that this new legal guide will play a key part in addressing the shocking overrepresentation of care experienced children and young adults in the criminal justice system.”
The guide will be free to access online.
Notes to editors
- Dare to Care: Representing care experienced young people written by Kate Aubrey-Johnson (barrister) and Dr Laura Janes (solicitor) in collaboration with the policy forum at the Drive Forward Foundation and is published by the Youth Justice Legal Centre. Confidential advance copies are available to the press prior to the launch on request or it can be downloaded from 13 September 2023 at: https://yjlc.uk/resources/legal-guides-and-toolkits
- Drive Forward Foundation supports care experienced young people into sustainable and fulfilling employment. The Policy Forum was founded by Jordan Morgan to promote legislative and policy change in the care system. Its members, who have lived experience of being needlessly criminalised, campaign on a number of issues, including mental health provision and education. The forum worked with MOPAC to secure the creation of a London-wide protocol to reduce the criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers.
This blog was originally written for T2A (Transition to Adulthood) by Chair, Leroy Logan MBE. He reflects on the lack of progress on the Lammy Review recommendations and what this means for young Black and minority ethnic adults. Last week, Prison Reform Trust published an update on the progress of the Lammy Review’s prison recommendations. Commenting, Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:
“More than five years on since David Lammy’s review revealed the shocking extent of racial disproportionality in our criminal justice system, our report shows that many of the issues he identified remain stubbornly persistent.”
Of course, I welcome the transparency that this analysis brings. However, as someone who has worked tirelessly throughout my career to create a fairer criminal justice system, I am bitterly disappointed by the government’s lack of progress on its commitments.
In his 2018 Perrie Lecture, David Lammy said: “You cannot be in the criminal justice business and not be in the race business.”
And one cannot support children and young adults in the criminal justice system without being uncomfortably aware of the deep-seated racial disparities that exist. According to the Ministry of Justice’s statistics, over 40% of 18-24 year olds in custody are young Black and minority ethnic adults.
That’s why the work of T2A is hugely important. Together with T2A Alliance members, we’re doing all we can to ensure that every young adult in the criminal justice system gets the support they need, based on their ongoing maturity and not simply on their chronological age.
We often speak to practitioners across HMPPS who want to do more to support young Black and minority ethnic adults, so we must continue to create accessible resources and tools that enable them to do so.24 year olds in custody are young Black and minority ethnic adults.
Training materials should cover everything from understanding how to talk about race and increasing cultural awareness, to learning more about implicit bias and discrimination. Listening to Black and minority ethnic organisations and the young adult they support will ensure these materials are grounded in lived experience. Spark Inside’s recent #BeingWellBeingEqual report highlighted the importance of this approach, and how promoting young Black men’s wellbeing can help them unlock their full potential.
Learning how to support young adults to move from a pro-offending to pro-social identity will also be crucial. With a stronger insight into how identity and trauma inform behaviour, staff will be able to develop more positive relationships with the young Black and minority ethnic adults in their care.
I know that the scale of the challenges we face may feel insurmountable at times. Many people, myself included, are rightly disappointed that so little has changed since David Lammy’s landmark review five years ago.
But we must not let this deter us. We must harness this energy and relentlessly focus on the work ahead of us. And if you’re feeling a tad cynical, which is completely understandable, I invite you to delve into the power of optimism.
Want to learn more about how to support young adults in the justice system?
This blog, by Rob Allen and Dr Laura Janes, was written for Russell Webster to coincide with the launch of their T2A (Transition to Adulthood) report on young adults and parole and is cross-posted here.The current Secretary of State for Justice has put the parole system at the heart of his reform agenda, introducing sweeping changes to both law and policy designed to “stop the release of dangerous offenders from prison”.
The changes have ranged from who may be referred to the Parole Board, to what professionals working for the Ministry of Justice can say to the Board in written and oral evidence. In the recent case of Bailey v SSJ the High Court said that one piece of guidance “may well have resulted in prisoners being released who would not otherwise have been released and in prisoners not being released who would otherwise have been released.” All the changes made by the current administration apply indiscriminately to anyone going through the process, regardless of age.
Young adults, currently defined by the Parole Board as 18-21-year-olds, only make up around 2% of its overall case load. But data revealed in a new T2A report on young adults and parole shows that there are some important differences in the characteristics of this cohort compared to older adults..
First, young adults are much more likely to appear before the Parole Board because they have been sent back to prison for alleged failures on supervision after automatic release from a standard sentence. The Board must then decide whether it’s safe to re-release them. Last year 97% of all initial ‘paper reviews’ by the Parole Board of young adults were because they had been recalled. Yet, across all age groups only 73% of cases concerned recalls.
A recent report by the Chief Inspector of Probation found that “most recalls to custody were caused by homelessness, a return to drug or alcohol misuse or a failure to ensure continuity of care pre and post release – not by re-offending.” Young adults can be particularly susceptible to be being recalled given that their developing maturity may make it harder to comply with licence conditions.
Second, when young adults are considered in more depth and have a chance to explain themselves to the Parole Board at an oral hearing, they are much more likely to be released than older applicants. In 2022, 59% of all young adults were released following an oral hearing whereas the overall release rate for all reviews was one in four.
The T2A AllianceIn the 18 years since its Independent Commission published Lost in Transition, Barrow Cadbury Trust has worked tirelessly to promote a more distinctive approach to young adults in the criminal justice system through T2A. This latest study looks at a relatively hidden corner of criminal justice that needs urgent attention. It’s very welcome that existing Parole Board guidance says 18–21-year-olds should be presumed suitable for an oral hearing if they aren’t released on the papers, but the study suggests more should be done to enable release at the initial paper stage or at least ensure oral hearings are convened as quickly as possible. Given the current pressures on prison places, it makes little sense to have young adults recalled to prison who are highly likely to be safe to release, sometimes staying there for a year or more. The Chair of the Sentencing Council has recently encouraged the use of suspended sentences where appropriate in light of the high prison population. The report also recommends that more should be done to ensure young adults, many of whom have high levels of need, can effectively participate in the parole process with the support of legal representation. This could also go some way to counter the systemic discrimination that persists for minoritised groups in prison and which has still not been addressed five years on from the Lammy review. It will also assist the very few young adult women that come before the Board but who require a specialised approach. Young adultsThe T2A report also argues that the Parole Board should treat those up to 25 as young adults, which would not only reflect the latest research on brain development but bring practice into line with many other agencies. For example, thanks in part to the influence of work by the Howard League and T2A, courts should now take account of the emotional and developmental age of an offender, and recognise that young people up to 25 are still developing neurologically. Greater application of this evidence-based approach by both the Parole Board and HMPPS will bring parole more into line with other parts of the system. The report makes a number of simple recommendations such as making sure the Board asks for the right kind of information before reaching a decision. When a young person has been in care, the Board should have information from social services. The Board should also interpret the test for release which it must apply in the light of what’s known about how young people mature, and how their risks of causing harm can be managed and reduced. The report recommends that the prison service gives young adults better access to the programmes, relationships and assistance which can help them prepare for success on release. ProbationProbation is also encouraged to provide more individualised support for young adults on licence in the community, but which does not overload them with complex requirements or impose conditions all but impossible to meet. The report finds mixed views about whether young adults are recalled too much but recommends this should be kept under close review, along with safeguards to prevent them going back to prison unnecessarily. Given the relatively small number of young adults going through the parole process, and the obvious benefits to reform, it is hoped that these recommendations will be both feasible and welcomed. |
