{"id":7532,"date":"2026-07-20T12:41:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=7532"},"modified":"2026-07-20T12:41:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:41:37","slug":"experts-demand-u-turn-on-new-guidelines-which-exclude-prisoners-from-restorative-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/07\/20\/experts-demand-u-turn-on-new-guidelines-which-exclude-prisoners-from-restorative-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"EXPERTS DEMAND U-TURN ON NEW GUIDELINES WHICH EXCLUDE PRISONERS FROM RESTORATIVE JUSTICE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Wednesday 1st July, some 45 Restorative&nbsp;Justice organisations submitted a letter to Lord Timpson, Minister for Prisons and Probation, outlining the sector\u2019s concerns around newly-issued guidelines, which now exclude many prisoners from participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Restorative justice brings those harmed by crime or conflict and those responsible for the harm into communication, enabling everyone affected by a particular incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a positive way forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These new guidelines, however, which are already being implemented, have a \u201cpresumption of unsuitability\u201d for sexual and violent crimes, apart from where there are \u201cspecial circumstances\u201d. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Described as a \u2018significant setback\u2019 for the Restorative Justice movement, victims as well as perpetrators will be prevented from taking part in Restorative Justice programmes, which supporters say help bring understanding and often closure\u00a0to victims\u00a0following a traumatic incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Organisations stressed that national frameworks should focus on enabling access, supporting safe practice and strengthening multi\u2011agency collaboration, rather than creating additional barriers. A more inclusive, sector\u2011wide approach was seen as essential to ensuring that any national guidance enhances, rather than restricts, the delivery of Restorative Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For further information,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/insidetime.org\/newsround\/make-restorative-justice-available-for-all-demand-practitioners\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>click here.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday 1st July, some 45 Restorative&nbsp;Justice organisations submitted a letter to Lord Timpson, Minister for Prisons and Probation, outlining [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Amelie","author_link":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/author\/amelie\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"On Wednesday 1st July, some 45 Restorative&nbsp;Justice organisations submitted a letter to Lord Timpson, Minister for Prisons and Probation, outlining [&hellip;]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7533,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532\/revisions\/7533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}