Transformative justice, women with convictions and uniting communities

This project will explore the effectiveness of transformative justice in creating stronger connections between women with convictions and the communities around them. The aim is to establish whether transformative justice can increase connectivity within and between communities, making them stronger, more equal, and more connected.

Women with convictions have complex needs, accounting for 13% of deaths of people on post-release supervision (MoJ 2021); yet constituting under 5% of the prison population. Family and friends are crucial in supporting the reintegration of offenders and community responses have been identified as most effective at preventing reoffending. However, despite the connection between community cohesion and improved outcomes for women with convictions, community provision is inconsistent and limits their ability to seek specific support. Transformative justice theory states that criminal justice agencies fail to address individual and collective needs, thereby perpetuating cycles of abuse. Instead, community accountability and engagement should be promoted to challenge unequal power relationships and build community understanding of people’s lives and needs, offering space for ‘healing, accountability, resilience, and safety for all involved’ (Mingus, 2020).

The research team will be using a participative and co-operative action research approach to conduct a transformative justice intervention in Staffordshire. The study will have four main elements:

• Running focus groups with women with convictions to explore needs, experiences, and views on transformative justice.
• Conducting a systematic review of TJ literature, followed by interviews with practitioners and activists around the world that have adopted transformative justice approaches in communities.
• Working with practitioners from local and national organisations with expertise in supporting women with convictions and arts-based community projects, to host 15 workshops, initially with Stoke-on-Trent residents and then inviting women with convictions to join.
• Evaluating the workshops through a survey and focus groups with participants from both communities at midpoint and near workshop-endpoint.

The research aims to establish whether transformative justice supports women with convictions to reintegrate into communities; whether it facilitates social connections and promotes equality. The findings will be disseminated through a final report and launch event aimed at a broad audience, including policy makers, community practitioners, and academics in the fields of social work, criminology, arts and culture, and sociology The workshops will be used to develop a toolkit and form the basis of a training programme for interested organisations. The team will produce briefing papers to inform policy decisions and will engage with the Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service.

The featured image for this project is a mural by Jacob V Joyce and members of Rad Mural Cooperative, painted on a building in Brixton to represent the riots during the 1980s. We thank them for permission to use this image of their work.