Innovation, Justice and Youth

Innovation within the criminal justice system and related spheres is desperately needed. Year on year we see a steady rise in the prison population, with especially alarming trends amongst young people, children, and women.

The case for innovation is clear: current methods, models and institutions are failing. We need innovative and effective ways of reducing re-offending in order to maximise human potential in the criminal justice arena whilst preventing unnecessary harm to both victims and offenders caused by excessive use of incarceration. To this end, the Young Foundation has recently embarked on a new programme of work entitled Innovation, Justice and Youth. The programme will focus primarily on children and young adults.

There are three key strands to this programme:

• Enabling innovation - identifying, empowering and promoting innovative approaches to reducing offending and the use of custody, and to maximise human potential among vulnerable populations
• Influencing policy – producing a number of policy reports focusing on key priority areas, including, for example, mental health and substance misuse and skills and learning
• Shifting public opinion – exploring how public opinion can support innovative approaches to reducing offending

The first strand of the work is linked closely with the Innovation Catalyst project, working in partenrship with four Local Authorities. Policy work incorporates delivery of part of the policy dimension of the Transition to Adulthood Alliance (T2A), in partnership with the Barrow Cadbury Trust.

The programme is managed by Anton Shelupanov, Senior Research Associate for Criminal Justice and overseen by Rushanara Ali, Associate Director. The team at the Young Foundation is supported by an Advisory Board.