...Q2: How should we best use the expertise and innovation of the private and voluntary sectors to help develop the working prison?

At Prison Fellowship we would welcome the opportunity to provide a free Chaplaincy Supporter from among our volunteers in order to ensure that every prison Chaplain would be offered a Chaplain’s Assistant to work with them to support them with their administrative work. This position would be a voluntary position, and would be filled by suitable local PF volunteers.

Our volunteers have vast experience working alongside Chaplaincy departments in prisons, and are well placed to understand the pressures that prison Chaplain’s are faced with and how they can be supported. This would free up the administrative burden which is faced by Chaplains when voluntary sector programmes are being run and would therefore increase the capacity to run more programmes.

...Q3: How can we make it possible for more prisoners to make reparation, including to victims and communities?

If it is to effect long term change in offenders and really to satisfy victims and communities, two things are important: first that the reparation is linked to an opportunity for those affected to say how they have been impacted by the offending and an acknowledgement of the impact by the offender. Reparation without that has reduced value. To succeed and it must include a personal accountability: taking responsibility is not about being forced to do something practical - the practical action has to be an outward representation of an inward acknowledgment or change of heart to be effective in bringing about long term change.

Prison Fellowship believes that restorative justice programmes are an important tool for allowing offenders to make reparation to their victims and communities. Restorative Justice gives offenders the opportunity to see how their crimes have affected others, and gives them that sense of personal accountability and responsibility to make a change in themselves. Restorative Justice courses – both inside and outside the prison  – also help to show the impact of offending behaviour on the wider community. The approach is uniquely placed to recognise each individual situation and allow parties involved to come to an agreement about a desired outcome or response.

The Sycamore Tree course, although not providing direct mediation between an offender and their victim, teaches the principles of Restorative Justice to up to 20 prisoner-learners at a time. This includes the testimony in person of a victim of crime who acts as a surrogate victim to the offenders. Teaching in a group is a practical way of maximizing the impact of this surrogate experience by allowing more prisoners to be introduced to this way of thinking. It is often Prison Fellowship’s experience that individual offenders are then motivated to seek to make reparation to their own particular victims and communities.

Restorative Justice also gives victims an active engagement with the process of reparation as it gives them the opportunity to ask questions of offenders and their behaviour. It gives victims the chance to play a meaningful role in getting prisoners to understand the need for reparation. 

...Q49: How can we best use restorative justice approaches to prevent offending by young people and ensure they make amends?

Restorative Justice is an effective intervention that should be used at every appropriate opportunity: in prison and in the community, and with all ages of offender. Our experience is that the Sycamore Tree Programme works with young people, as much as with older offenders and with a full range of offences including persistent repeat offenders . Our research shows that the course is not just effective on young offenders and short sentences but also on serious offences and persistent repeat offenders.

Download, "Breaking the cycle – a response from Prison Fellowship [England and Wales]."