Criminal justice

The Criminal Justice system (CJS) in the UK is one that is seen as a leading light in the world, however it has faced decades of criticism in relation to discrimination based on race. What has been prominent is the commitment towards three main goals at its core. The engagement of the public while inspiring confidence, deploying simple and efficient best practices and increasing public confidence in the fairness and effectiveness of the criminal justice system and that is what we look to unite behind and inspire change towards increasing public confidence and fairness.

The Scarman report (1981), The Macpherson report (1997) and The Lammy Review (2017) have all been nationally groundbreaking essentially looking into communities and their relations with the CJS, as well as an overview of how minorities are treated, together they show that over 36 years there is still need and room for the police for instance to build better stronger relations with the communities they serve.as The disproportionate number of BAME people in the CJS is as high as  ever before and can be put down to a range of failures via successive governments. With a consensus that bad policy legislation,the lack of good policy implementations and racial bias and unconscious racism have brought these unfortunate outcomes that have gone  against the principles of the criminal justice system: promoting best practices and increasing public confidence in the fairness of the system.


(Award winning Criminal Justice Charity Keys 4 Life Case study)

Their mission is to reduce youth re-offending through the delivery of innovative rehabilitation programmes to those in prison and those at risk of going to prison. They put the cost of one service user through the Key4Life year-long programme at £5,000 while the average annual cost of a prison place in the UK is £41,136 per year.


Keys 4 Life state for every £1 invested keys 4 life generates £17.06 in social value over 3 years, ex offenders are nearly 4 times as less likely to reoffend a year after release when participating on a keys 4 life programme. 14% of those who go through Key4Life's prison and preventative programmes have reoffended, in comparison to the national reoffending rate of 64% one-year post-release.

In 2019 the estimated total costs of crime in England and Wales to be approximately £50bn for crimes against individuals and £9bn for crimes against businesses. Violent crimes make up the largest proportion of the total costs of individual crime. Around half of all crime is committed by someone who has already been through the CJS. The cost to the taxpayer of reoffending is estimated to be £9.5 -£13 billion per year.

Reoffending has been high for years, there has been little change in conviction rates and almost half of those released from prison go on to reoffend within 12 months of release for various reasons. We long to reduce reoffending to reduce both the number of victims and cost to the taxpayer, while looking to support people away from crime in the future removing barriers. 

For example the current system for disclosure of youth criminal records undermines the principles of the youth justice system, says the justice Committee in reports published dating back to october 2017, the reports also argue that the current system may well fall short of the UK’s obligations under the UN Convention on the rights of a child.

We want to shine a light on such burning injustices that childhood criminal records have on the majority of individuals who are trying to change their lives and be a credit to society, with so many struggling to access employment education, housing, insurance as well as when requesting a visa for travel, additionally a need to highlight its unparalleled discriminatory impact on BAME children, those within the care system and young women thrown into prostitution.

With growing concern over unmet mental health needs among BAME individuals within the CJS, particularly in the youth justice system, the level of need may be even greater than thought, it has also been found that BAME individuals are less likely to have mental health problems or learning disabilities identified upon entry to the CJS. The government has confirmed numerous times over the last 3 years that its primary objective in youth justice is to stop people being drawn into crime, with consequent blighting of their life chances, as well as harm being caused to victims and communities.

( Chair of the Justice select committee Bob Neil MP ) has remarked in parliament  though these laudable aims are systematically undermined by the current disclosure regime: mistakes made as a teenager can follow someone around for decades and create a barrier towards rehabilitation, along with profound problems with access to employment and education.


it is clear that much more needs to be done for the success of Key4Life unfortunately their success is not mirrored up and down the country on the contrary, we fear the situation with cost to the public purse, trauma on victims and recidivism, all point us towards a tipping point in action would lead us down a bad path when a new approach would be more fitting for all of society and in reach of policymakers and the Government.