A new report and poll from the Common Ground Justice Project has explored the crisis of confidence in the criminal justice system (CJS), with fewer than one in five voters (18%) believing that people who commit crimes usually face real consequences. Just 22% said the CJS did a good job of reducing crime, and only 38% of protecting the public. Of key institutions, only the police narrowly retained majority confidence (51%) – with prisons (41%), probation (38%) and youth justice (33%) lowest.
Almost two in three Britons (62%) said the criminal justice system needed major changes – with broad support for balancing punishment with rehabilitation and prevention.
The report made seven recommendations:
- Ensure consequences and public safety are the foundation – reassurance here is what creates permission for bold action on rehabilitation and prevention.
- Focus on accountability and responsibility to reach across divides
– responsibility is the clearest common ground, while punishment is a popular but more divisive frame. - Restore visible consequences for prolific and low-level crime
– everyday crime that visibly goes unaddressed is driving the confidence crisis and needs urgent action. - Improve communication and honesty with victims and the public – say what sentences mean, follow through, and tell victims what happened in their case.
- Strengthen and amplify community justice – make non-custodial sentences more robust, more visible and clearly evidenced; scepticism is mostly about the system’s capacity to deliver, not leniency.
- Make recovery from addiction central to tackling prolific offending, getting the balance of consequence and high-quality treatment right.
- Develop a cross-party 10-year plan for justice – politicians should respond to public frustration by working together across parties on a long-term approach to fixing the criminal justice system: a plan built on pragmatic ‘common ground’ solutions.
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