NOMS restorative justice capacity building programme evaluation published
An evaluation of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) restorative justice capacity building programme has been published. The 27 month programme, delivered by Restorative Solutions, aimed to increase provision of restorative justice within the prison and probation service through a large training programme for staff.
The evaluation notes that fewer restorative justice conferences resulted from the programme than was hoped. This was due in part to the large scale organisational changes to the prison and probation service, including the Transforming Rehabilitation programme which took place during the programme. However the evaluation also notes the difficulties associated with introducing restorative justice in general and notes that for “RJ to become more fully embedded, there is a need to achieve a cultural shift in favour of restorative principles, through positive leadership at every level”
In all, 2,643 cases were processed through the scheme, of these:
- 153 (6%) went to conference
- 230 (9%) resulted in an alternative restorative outcome
- 1,128 (43%) were ongoing at the end of fieldwork
- 1,132 (43%) were terminated without a restorative outcome
In line with other research, those that did go to conference were generally very positive experiences for both victims and offenders and the evaluation notes that “at their best, RJ conferences can be genuinely transformational experiences”.
The full evaluation carried out by ICPR can be found here.