Crime, Community and Justice - Report to Meeting for Sufferings, June 2011

1. Introduction

Justice should be compassionate, forgiving and healing – restorative, not retributive. We want to change attitudes and encourage the criminal justice system to move towards this vision of justice.
Quaker Peace & Social Witness Crime, Community and Justice Group, July 2009

In April 2008 a report was made to Meeting for Sufferings giving a ‘snap-shot’ of the diversity of activity within Britain Yearly Meeting expressing the complex and long-standing concern for criminal justice. This paper gives a similar ‘snap-shot’ three years on, and within the context of priority f of A Framework for Action 2009-2014 adopted by Meeting for Sufferings in September 2008:

Crime, Community and Justice: Quakers are well known for our work in supporting prisoners and in campaigning for reform of our justice system. Quaker work includes promoting alternatives to violence, alternatives to custody, restorative justice and support for the families of prisoners and for communities affected by crime.

We would like work to be funded in niche areas that can best draw on our existing local experience, such as that of our Prison Ministers, to complement the work already carried out by other bodes such as the Prison Reform Trust and the Howard League for Penal Reform. We hope in particular that work can address the needs of mentally ill people within the justice system.

We would like to see this area exemplify ways in which central, local and individual effort and experience can be brought together in a campaign over a long time to influence public opinion to transform the criminal justice system. This must be based on evidence, working with established campaigning bodies. The basis for this work is our belief in that of God in everyone, and our testimonies to equality and peace.

As before, this is not an exhaustive list of what Friends are doing locally, regionally, nationally, internationally, individually, collectively, corporately, alone and with non-Quaker partners; nor of all the ways in which they are providing direct practical services to individuals and changing systems through informed advocacy (often doing both together): it is a limited collection of current examples of the value of working across the whole range of the concern and of working together.

Friends themselves continue to be involved in the criminal justice system as witnesses, expert witnesses, victims, offenders, prisoners, ex-prisoners, families and friends of offenders and victims of crime; they work for the police, prison and probation services.

They are magistrates, judges, solicitors, barristers, criminologists; Quaker Prison Chaplains, prison visitors, advocates, mentors, befrienders, pen-pals for prisoners; volunteers in prison visitors centres and play projects for children, victim support, resettlement projects for ex-offenders, Circles of Support and Accountability; members of Youth Offender Panels, Youth Justice Boards, Scottish Children's Hearing Panels, Independent Monitoring Boards (England & Wales), Visiting Committees (Scotland) Independent Custody Visitors, parole boards; counsellors, therapists, mediators; educationalists, psychiatrists and psychologists working in the field; and notable researchers and authors on the subjects of criminal justice, community justice and restorative justice.

Some Meetings feel able to welcome offenders, prisoners and ex-prisoners into their Meetings for Worship, helped by the Guidance produced in 2009 by Quaker Life and Quaker Peace & Social Witness; others find this difficult or impossible. There are Meetings who support a Meeting for Worship in the local prison. In some Meetings Friends have formed their own criminal justice or community justice groups, whose activities include raising awareness about the issues, supporting the Quaker Prison Chaplains in their area, working in partnership with the community police and engaging with policy makers.

Friends also work for, volunteer with, serve on the managing committees/boards of, and are members of a wide variety of other organisations, Quaker and non-Quaker, campaigning for improvements in the prison and criminal justice systems, and working directly with victims, offenders, prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families.

Much of this work generates not only the cumulative reputation which Quakers have for being actively involved with criminal justice affairs, but also a 'ripple' effect with Quaker initiatives taken up by others and providing models for other, new, projects.

2. Activities

Here are some examples of work which show something of the diversity: it does not pretend to be a comprehensive illustration. The uniting force around these diverse activities is the belief in reconciliation and healing, expressed through restorative justice approaches.

Addressing policy makers

In June 2010 the newly appointed Secretary of State for Justice, Kenneth Clarke, made some bold statements about his desire to reduce the prison population in England and Wales. Friends sent him their support through a letter from Meeting for Sufferings, followed up by local Friends and meetings writing to their MPs, to Kenneth Clarke and to Crispin Blunt, Minister for Prisons. In response, the Ministry of Justice Strategy Unit is offering a meeting which Michael Bartlet, Parliamentary Liaison Secretary, and Paula Harvey, QPSW Crime, Community and Justice Programme Manager, are now in the process of arranging.

Friends individually and as Meetings maintain contact with their Members of Parliament, Members of Scottish Parliament and Members of Welsh Assembly through correspondence and meetings. Representation on other bodies means that a Quaker voice is added publicly to those of other churches and agencies, at local and national level, calling for changes to the criminal justice system through, for example, Churches Together in England groups, CYTUN and Joint Faiths Advisory Board on Criminal Justice in Scotland.

Concerns continue to be raised and tested through Quaker discipline. For example, Meeting for Sufferings recently received a minute from Central England Area Meeting expressing concern that the government’s proposals to reform legal aid will have a severe effect on women, children and the most vulnerable members of societies. The minute has been passed to Quaker Peace & Social Witness Central Committee for consideration, and to Mid Thames Area Meeting which is gathering information about the government’s economic cuts.

Circles of Support and Accountability (Circles)

This Canadian initiative was picked up by Quaker Peace & Social Witness who established a pilot project in 2002 in Thames Valley funded by the Home Office, and undertook the work, with government funding, to create the national umbrella for Circles of Support and Accountability within the UK (both the original pilot and the national body are now independent non-Quaker charities). Friends continue to initiate new projects and serve as Circles volunteers. Circles of Support and Accountability projects are now operating in many areas including Cumbria, East Anglia, Greater Manchester, Northumbria, North Wales, South London and South West England. Friends in Scotland contributed to overcoming the Scottish Government’s resistance to introducing Circles, and a pilot project was launched in Fife in December 2010. (Circles have now moved into the Netherlands and Belgium.) Website: www.circles-uk.org.uk

Crime, Community and Justice Group (CCJG)

Quaker Peace & Social Witness Crime, Community and Justice Group links Britain Yearly Meeting to other bodies such as the Restorative Justice Council, Criminal Justice Alliance, and the ecumenical Churches' Criminal Justice Forum; supports a network of Friends' own local activity groups; promotes restorative justice amongst Friends and others; works in partnership with other Quaker groups such as Quaker Prison Chaplains Group, Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs, and Quakers in Criminal Justice; and represents Quaker views to government and other policy makers. Their current response is on “More Effective Responses to Anti-Social Behaviour”. The name of the Group reflects the recognition that their work is concerned with both the state criminal justice system and how to build community, and to support Friends' witness in relation to both. Website: www.quaker.org.uk/crime-community-justice

Escaping Victimhood

Escaping Victimhood runs a unique residential programme combining many different activities to enable those traumatised by crime to move from being a victim to being a survivor and to reclaim their lives. To date it has run nine workshops, one for survivors of domestic violence and eight for families of murder or manslaughter victims. From the vision of an individual Friend, supported by Old Jordans and local Meetings, it has become an established charitable body now working towards rolling out its programmes across the UK, been independently evaluated, and gained funds to employ its first member of staff this year. Website: www.escapingvictimhood.com

Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC)

An international team of volunteers from FWCC attends the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, based in Vienna, and its Congress held every five years. FWCC is also a member of the International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council to the UN Criminal Justice Programme; representatives attend its annual meetings and conferences in Italy. Their work focuses on promoting the concept and use of restorative justice, as well as women in prison and children of prisoners. The Quaker delegates organise meetings and workshops and make written and oral statements to the assembled governments. During the UN Crime Congress in Salvador, Brazil, in 2010 the Quaker delegation hosted side events on children of prisoners, restorative justice and domestic violence, and restorative justice in prisons. Between meetings, the Quaker representatives have worked with the World Health Organisation Europe Office's ‘Health in Prisons Project’ to develop a background paper and declaration on Women's Health in Prison (published jointly in 2009 by World Health Organisation Europe and UN Office on Drugs and Crime). Websites: http://quno.org/humanrights/women-in-prison/crime_commission.htm / www.fwccworld.org

Housing for victims of crime and ex-offenders

As volunteer members of local social housing projects, and through Quaker Housing Trust (Britain Yearly Meeting s own housing charity), Friends are creating and supporting specialist housing to meet the needs of people who have been harmed by crime, are at risk of committing crime, or are ex-prisoners. In recent years such projects include refuges for women escaping domestic violence (London and Blaenau Ffestiniog); supported housing for homeless ex-offenders (Norfolk and Bristol); and safe new homes for young trafficked women (London). Website: www.qht.org.uk

International Quaker Criminal Justice Liaison Group

Formerly the “Women in Prison Project Group”, this is an international forum for four Quaker bodies working together on shared areas of concern within criminal justice, including the original focus on the particular needs of women in prison and the children of imprisoned mothers. The four bodies are: the Quaker United Nations Office Geneva, the Quaker Council for European Affairs in Brussels, Quaker Peace & Social Witness in Britain, and the Friends World Committee for Consultation representation to the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Website: www.quaker.org.uk/crime-community-justice

Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA)

A Quaker body at European level with strong links to Britain Yearly Meeting, through membership of QCEA's governing body, funding and networking. QCEA works with both the Council of Europe and the European Union structures – the UK being a Member State of both – thus linking European level international work with work in those Member States where there are significant Quaker populations: and it does matter to policy makers what European-level politicians say about issues. The European Prison Rules of the Council of Europe exist to protect the rights of prisoners in member states, and are regularly reviewed. In April 2009 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a Resolution calling on the member states to implement without delay the 2006 Revised Rules, which includes a new section on women in prison. Of the 41 recommendations in the report, 32 take up recommendations from QCEA’s ground-breaking Women in Prison report published in early 2007. In February 2010 QCEA published their report on Alternatives to Imprisonment within Council of Europe Member States and in May 2011 their report on The Social Reintegration of Ex- Prisoners in Council of Europe member states. Website: www.quaker.org/qcea (until summer 2011), www.qcea.org (thereafter).

Quakers in Criminal Justice (QICJ)

An informal network, QICJ offers mutual support for Quakers based in the UK in any way involved in the criminal justice system, professionally, as volunteers directly or in any related organisation, and also those who have personal experience of such as ex-offenders and ex-prisoners. Through the annual conferences and newsletters QICJ helps also to inform them (and thereby their Meetings) about current penal issues. Recent annual conferences have considered: opportunities for taking responsibility in bringing about action for those in need and changes in thinking about social justice; the perspectives of those working closely within the system, seeking to deliver justice in direct relationship with offenders, victims and witnesses; and a range of approaches that swim against the tide of our punitive culture, engaging with damaged lives to provide a better future. Website: www.qicj.org

Quakers in the World Portal

Initiated by Friends at Jordans meeting, this new database is being developed to provide access to high quality information and resources for everyone who wants to know more about what Quakers have done and are doing in the world, and why. ‘Ideas for educators’ is about using the website and related resources in different learning contexts, and there are discussion areas for exploring ideas and developing initiatives. The ‘Portal’ already contains information, essays and commentaries on areas of criminal, community and restorative justice. Website: www.quakersintheworld.org

Quaker Prison Chaplains Group (QPCG)

Quaker Prison Chaplains work within multifaith prison chaplaincy teams to offer spiritual support, friendship and what pastoral care they are able, to prisoners and prison staff alike, of all faiths and none. Many QPCs occupy a precarious position within their prison chaplaincy team: this vulnerability, combined with the fact that QPCs are prison service office holders, means that they do not campaign on prison issues. QPCs work with the chaplaincies of about 110 of Britain's 140 or so prisons. The Quaker Peace & Social Witness Quaker Prison Chaplain Group consists of six to eight serving QPCs, supported by a staff member. The QPC Group provides training, networking and support for QPCs, as well as actively supporting and engaging in the work of QPSW in promoting Quaker prison ministry within Britain.
Website: www.quaker.org.uk/quaker-prison-chaplains

Quaker United Nations Office, Geneva (QUNO)

Together with the FWCC representatives, QUNO engages with the UN human rights and criminal justice systems on issues of women in prison and children of prisoners, through publications and advocacy. Current and former QUNO staff were heavily involved in developing UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders, known as the “Bangkok Rules” and approved in December 2010. QUNO also worked with the World Health Organisation European Office's Health in Prisons Project to develop a background paper and declaration on Women's Health in Prison (published jointly in 2009 by WHO Europe and UN Office on Drugs and Crime ). QUNO was the first organisation to raise the issue of children of prisoners at the UN and successfully lobbied the Committee on the Rights of the Child to spend a day considering the issue in September 2011, as well as a UN Human Rights Council discussion for March 2012. Website: www.quno.org Bangkok Rules briefing: www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/humanrights/women-in-prison/PRI-QUNO_English.pdf

RESET (Prisoner Resettlement Project)

Through volunteers and links with statutory and voluntary agencies, RESET provides a wide range of practical advice and support to help offenders resettle successfully when they leave prison, helping them to meet basic needs such as accommodation, become responsible members of the local community, gain the skills necessary to support themselves and their families, address their emotional and health needs including combating addiction and improving mental health, and get access to employment opportunities. RESET arose from discussions between a Quaker Chaplain to Maidstone Prison and the prison governor, was taken up as a concern by Maidstone Local Meeting and West Kent Area Meeting, and developed into a community-based charity with significant support from Quakers but no longer a solely Quaker body. Formally established in February 2009, RESET is one of the pilots for the BYM supporting Local Initiatives programme launched in March 2010. Website: www.resetkent.org.uk

3. Learning from Experience: personal narratives from the criminal justice system

Victims and offenders are often poorly served by the current criminal justice system, but the effects can also be devastating for their family and friends, and even the professionals involved: their voices are rarely heard, yet the echoes rebound for years around them. For many, this may be the only chance they get to tell their story.

QPSW Crime, Community and Justice Group’s project Learning from Experience: Personal narratives from the criminal justice system aims to collect stories from people who have been affected in this way. This work, launched in 2009, is a direct response to the challenge in A Framework for Action 2009-2014. It supports Friends making witness through helping them to engage with the issues by themselves collecting and contributing personal narratives, and CCJG (and other Friends) using the data to encourage policy makers to reconsider the use of criminal sentences.

Friends do not have to be involved with the criminal justice system to participate: you may have a friend, relation, colleague who has been affected. Friends (and Attenders) are encouraged to collect these stories from anyone (Quaker and non-Quaker) with a story to tell, and to contribute their own. Simple guidelines are available to help collect the stories in a form that protects the story-teller’s anonymity.

Friends and Attenders throughout the country are accepting the invitation to be part of this unique initiative: stories have already been contributed from over twenty Area Meetings, and more are still being offered. Stories have come from the person sentenced; parents of the person sentenced; and from those who have been harmed by the crime. Crime, Community and Justice Group is actively seeking stories until the end of 2011 – particularly from the friends and families both of people who have been harmed by crime, and of people who have been sentenced. Website: www.quaker.org.uk/learning-experience

Personal narratives already received are exemplifying issues which we know to be significant, such as highlighting the distinctive stresses put upon prisoners and their families as a result of indeterminate prison sentences, regular movement between prisons, inadequate visiting facilities, and insufficient support for the families at all stages of the criminal justice process from court to prison. Crime, Community and Justice Group drew upon these for the recent response to the government’s major new Green Paper on sentencing policy Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders. Website: www.quaker.org.uk/crime-community-justice

4. Opportunities

“Restorative justice seeks to balance the concerns of the victim and the community with the need to reintegrate the offender into society. It seeks to assist the recovery of the victim and enable all parties with a stake in the justice process to participate fruitfully in it.”

The belief that God is in every individual prompts Quakers to see offenders as human beings with dignity and rights and to care for their welfare no matter what their crimes. Friends do not believe that anyone is outside God's love. Crime is an area where both forgiveness and justice are needed, and restorative justice approaches reflect that Quaker belief.

With many others, Quakers have long recommended that the practice of restorative justice is in the best interests of the victim, the offender and the community. When appropriately applied it can reduce re-offending, increase confidence in the police and criminal justice system, contribute to safer communities, and be cost-effective. It is more than merely reparation: it can repair the harm which has been done.

Possible new legislation in England and Wales

Although restorative justice is already used in the youth justice system, it is not yet established for adults. Proposals in the Green Paper Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders include a new commitment to making greater use of restorative justice for adults, community sentences, and other alternatives to prison. The White Paper (Bill) is due in the autumn of 2011, providing further opportunities for Friends to raise concerns with MPs as it goes through the Westminster Parliament.

Restorative justice models that the government is interested in exploring further, and which Friends could support as volunteers and/or participants, include:

• Neighbourhood Justice Panels: local volunteers and criminal justice professionals work together to decide what action should be taken to deal with some types of low level crime and disorder.
• Community Justice Panels: an innovative model being used in Sheffield and in South Somerset which brings vvictims and wrongdoers together to resolve conflict and harm caused by anti-social behaviour and crime, encouraging wrongdoers to acknowledge the effect of what they have done and make amends to the victim and the wider community by apologising and engaging in reparative work.
• Community Mediation Services: creating partnerships within the community to bring about involvement, commitment to restorative practice, and ensuring that appropriate cases are referred to mediation. Many specialise in a particular area - for example work with hate crimes, or developing peer mediation in schools.
• Website: www.restorativejustice.org.uk/what_is_restorative_justice/in_the_community

Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010

This contains Community Payback Orders as an alternative to prison sentences of 3 months or less. The presumption is that people who have damaged their communities by their offending should make reparation to the community, and thus indirectly, to those people whom they offended against. While Payback may be through unpaid work or by paying compensation, the concept also includes paying back to the community by working at changing patterns of unacceptable behaviour.

Although not mentioned as part of Community Payback Orders, there is the potential for restorative justice principles to play a more significant role in the criminal justice system. The activity can be undertaken with a community project, and local authorities welcome suggestions for suitable projects of all kinds. The SNP pre-election manifesto promised continued funding for Community Payback Orders, and Friends may wish to find ways to encourage the Scottish Parliament to make good use of this alternative to prison. Website: www.Scotland.gov.uk

Volunteering in the criminal justice system

There are many opportunities for individuals to volunteer either directly in the criminal justice system or with projects working with it. Sources of information include: “What Can I Do? Your guide to volunteering opportunities in the criminal justice system”. Published by pact and Churches' Criminal Justice Forum. Under revision. Website: www.ccjg.org. The version for Scotland is published by Joint Faiths Advisory Board on Criminal Justice and General Meeting for Scotland. Website: http://www.actsparl.org/resources/what-can-i-do-.aspx

6. Conclusion

Quakers have a long-standing concern about crime and prison issues: the Quaker voice is the area of criminal justice is distinctive, and an integral part of Friends’ witness in the world, a continuing part of our Quaker heritage.

There is, however, much work still to be done, in creating a right understanding of the nature and causes of crime, and in emphasising the need for redemptive treatment rather than retributive punishment. Inherited tendency and evil environment are both causes of crime. Society is in measure responsible for the criminal, a fact which emphasises the duty of meeting moral failure by redemptive care. Evil can only be finally overcome by good.

For the attainment of this end there is need, not only for adequate study of the whole problem of the criminal and wise regulation of his life, but also for the personal touch of those who have the good of the individual at heart. Larger use should be made of alternatives for punishment, such as an extended probation system; and far more care should be taken to help those who are discharged from prison to take their right place in society. There is much room for devoted voluntary as well as official work in these directions. 1911; 1925
Christian Practice: Being the Second Part of the Christian Discipline
of the Religious Society of Friends in Great Britain. 1925.
Quoted in part in section 23.95 of Quaker Faith & Practice 1995

Paula Harvey, Programme Manager,
Quaker Peace & Social Witness, Crime, Community and Justice
May 2011

At a Meeting for Sufferings held in London 4 June 2011
S/11/06/ 7: Framework for Action Priority F: Crime, community and justice

Further to minute S/08/04/ 8 of 5 April 2008 when a report was received giving a ‘snap-shot’ of the diversity of activity within Britain Yearly Meeting expressing the complex and long-standing concern for criminal justice, we have received a paper giving a similar ‘snap-shot’ three years on. The paper comes within the context of priority F of A Framework for Action (paper S/11/06/ C) and has been prepared by Paula Harvey (Programme Manager: Crime, community and justice, Quaker Peace & Social Witness). It is a collection of current examples of working across the whole range of the concern and the value of working together. It reports on centrally managed projects and also local initiatives by Area Meetings. As a retrospective of an impressive amount of Quaker work, we hope it will inspire and encourage Friends.

Christine Cannon, Clerk