Annmarie Lewis, Criminal Justice Programme Manager, gives an update of what’s coming up for the CJ programme and the T2A Transition into Adulthood campaign

If you follow our socials and subscribe to our enews, you may have noticed a bit of a hiatus in criminal justice programme news and about what T2A is currently working on. There’s a good reason for this – I came into the post last November, excited at the prospect of getting my teeth into the work of the programme.  In those six months alone there have been significant events which have confirmed the need to stand back and review our direction and focus – and me being new-ish in the post is a good reason to do that. 

Most of you already know what those events are so no need to list them here, but briefly the Sentencing Council’s new guidelines and the subsequent suspension of them, the publishing of two Sentencing Review reports, overcrowding in prisons and early release programmes, the shift toward  policies which might be defined as ‘retrogressive’ and knee jerk, and an incline towards negative narratives, particularly around marginalised groups in the justice system –  all good reasons to renew and refresh our programme.

Anyone working in and around the criminal justice system as I have for many years, will not be taken aback by the current lack of forward and creative thinking.  However, it is not all doom and gloom.  Gauke’s Sentencing Review had some positive elements – though the lack of reference to young adults and the work of T2A was disappointing (see our response to the review).  And of course we are used to working in adversity – whoever’s in government and whoever is Justice or Prisons Minister.  Over the last 20+ years of T2A, and more than 100 years of Barrow Cadbury Trust, this hasn’t stopped us from making and proposing changes and we are committed to carrying on in this vein.

Coming up …

So what’s coming up in the coming 12 months?   Strategic communications have played an important part in our migrations programme, but now a group of CJ funders, including JABBS Foundation, Lankelly Chase, Pop Culture, Chanel Foundation, Henry Smith, Joseph Rowntree, Esme Fairbairn and others have banded together to work out how to counter harmful narratives for working with the public, media, and policy makers.  The ‘two tier’ rhetoric has been unhelpful – and not just in the criminal justice sector but in other sectors as well.

Partnerships and changing narratives

We are strengthening our partnerships including the one with Corston Independent Funders Coalition, and the Harm to Healing partnership, so we can be more effective funders, reduce duplication, highlight critical gaps, and collaborate on counter narratives challenging toxic and harmful ones across criminal, racial and gender justice.  There is no doubt this will be a challenge; research has found that increasingly people aren’t worried about misinformation or disinformation.  AI is creating a whole other level of communicating that we need to get on top of if we’re not to get overwhelmed by negative content.  The Edelman Trust Barometer 2025 has found the more something is ‘red-flagged’ the more some people will share it – whether it’s damaging, incorrect, or harmful.  The media landscape is becoming more complex, more polarised, and influences from the US and other parts of the globe are making the job of changing negative narratives harder and harder.

Grassroots

But there is some amazing work being done at grassroots.  Spark Inside held a round table to talk about taking forward six months of conversations with young men and colleagues from the prison, healthcare and voluntary sectors, building on the work of their Being Well, Being Equal campaign and report.  This was a chance to bring together leading policymakers, practitioners and experts in the field of wellbeing, young adults and racial equity, talking about what health and justice colleagues can do to support and inform their work with young Black men. 

Making the evidence base more accessible

We have more than 20 years of evidence around why we need a dedicated approach to young adults in the criminal justice system.  Our plan is to synthesise that evidence base to distil best practices and create a blueprint for a transformed justice system for young adults.  And that blueprint will include embedding individuals with lived and learned experience of the criminal justice system into the T2A ‘programme’, establishing a T2A advisory panel.

Finally, we will be ramping up our focus on advancing racial and gender justice within the criminal justice system, identifying and challenging systemic biases and inequalities.  We will ensure that all campaign, advocacy and influencing work is underpinned by a strong commitment to reducing disparities and enhancing fairness. 

Collaboration

At the end of this month we have our first workshop in a series of four.  This first one will look at the current criminal justice ‘system’ and what we mean by that.  To what extent is it a system, and which bits of it work?  The second workshop will look at the system in more depth, the third will present our literature review, and the final one will look at narrative change.  Our plan is for all four workshops to feed into a 2026 conference – the first significant T2A conference in 10 years.  If you’d like to be kept informed about the workshops and any other activities, sign up to our enews on the T2A website, and follow us on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

I hope you will find everything that I’ve outlined resonates with your own ambitions and focus.  Looking forward to working with you!