Make Justice Work launched at RSA

The force that is Roma Hooper brought the launch of Make Justice Work Campaign to the RSA yesterday.  Joined by a prestigious group of academics, practitioners and business leaders, Roma outlined the vision for the Campaign which primarily calls for non-custodial sentences for low-level, non-violent offenders who more often than not receive short term sentences of less than 12 months.

The force that is Roma Hooper brought the launch of Make Justice Work Campaign to the RSA yesterday.  Joined by a prestigious group of academics, practitioners and business leaders, Roma outlined the vision for the Campaign which primarily calls for non-custodial sentences for low-level, non-violent offenders who more often than not receive short term sentences of less than 12 months.

If you follow my blog then you will know where I stand on the matter of short term sentences but more generally I think that in order to address the continuing re-offending rate, rising costs and increasing pressures on an already pressurised environment, there needs to be a proper, in-depth, robust, practical, transparent and publicly inclusive debate on the case for non-custodial sentences, greater levels of community involvement at all levels (service provision included... maybe?!), developing a greater understanding of why people offend, what their needs are and what they think  are the best ways to tackle them.

Rightly or wrongly MJW have decided to focus on short termers; members of the group for example pointed out yesterday during question time that the system isn’t working for many of the other  identifiable groups such as the elderly, the disabled, long termers, indeterminate sentences and so on.  That’s certainly true but you’ve got to start somewhere, and as a starting point Make Justice Work brings together a range of ambassadors leading in their fields of expertise. A firm footing indeed!