9 Aug 2023
As part of the Young Women's Justice Project, we recently spoke to two young women with lived experience of the CJS, asking them what they think needs to change. In the second part of this blog, they emphasise early intervention and diversion away from the system and involving women with lived experience in policymaking.
Early intervention and diversion
Where risks and needs are identified, early support for girls and young women can lead to positive interventions, preventing women entering the system in the first place. Unfortunately, young women often describe only being able to access effective support from services once problems have escalated.
This was Amria's experience. She reported the domestic abuse she faced to local authorities yet was not listened to. She says this is one of the things that needs to change: "Having early disclosures at the beginning, like being listened to when you were younger. Like I said, I went through domestic violence from a young [age]. So, if I disclose that to the local authorities, they should have listened before it got worse later on as an adult."
Prioritising early intervention is something H also strongly believes in.
"If I had identified or anybody else identified, [those] vulnerabilities and risks very, very early on, would I have been here? Who knows?" she says. "My priority's always been prevention. You know, if you identify, tackle it, roll out crime prevention programmes, there's so many things you can do."
In order to divert young women away from the CJS, Amria suggests "giving them a safety net, a safe place they can go". For instance, a community centre with "different activities" on offer so women don’t need to broadcast the reason they are there.
Similarly, H emphasises "addressing the root causes of crime and investing in social services". She also highlights post-release as a key opportunity for intervention to prevent women and girls returning to custody, saying young women must be re-integrated back into society and opportunities created for them:
"Supporting rehabilitation when they are being released back into society, I think that would definitely reduce recidivism. If there was a strong structure in place and services were providing tailored support for that individual, it would prevent them from re-offending and they can go back to their networks."
Involving women with lived experience in policy
Finally, both H and Amria advocate for the voices and expertise of young women who have lived experience of the criminal justice system being meaningfully included across policy and decision making.
As Amria says, policymakers need to "hear real stories from real lived experience women […] and hear what they've gone through and how they've been helped and what change needs to be made [in] their own words," adding, "that's the only way [things are] going to change."
Speaking specifically about how co-production can work in practice, Amria touches on power sharing, saying working with community organisations is one way to ensure lived and learned experience is valued equally:
"Working with community agencies that actually deal with that sort of thing and then sharing the learning and doing the partnership in that way. And because you're both trying to look for the same thing and you're trying to support young women, if you're both working together then you […] get your outcome but you're also supporting that individual."
Furthermore, H says collaboration can help to empower women with lived experience to use their stories to drive change. She speaks about an event she attended, where "everybody got together and shared knowledge, shared power, and that made me feel comfortable and want to share my experience as well."
Finally, shared values are essential. As H puts it, "[Working] with practitioners who share the same passion, who share the drive to make change. We can work together and then everybody's winning, we can all make change. That’s our number one agenda. I think it’s doable, it’s definitely doable. I refuse for a second to believe we can’t."
As part of the Young Women’s Justice Project, we will be publishing a briefing later this year identifying the gaps, limitations and best practice with regards to supporting girls and young women in the criminal justice system.