Rebel Justice

Send us Fan Mail Prison is one of the most hidden institutions in the UK, which means our opinions are often built from cinema scenes rather than social reality. We sit down with Andy West to talk about what happens when you bring big questions about freedom, identity, shame, and responsibility into a place designed for control. We explore Andy’s journey from HMP Belmarsh and other London prisons...

Send us Fan Mail This episode we sit down with criminology lecturer and solicitor, Dr Bisi Akintoye, to talk about Black and Brown women within the UK criminal justice system and the importance of recognising intersectionality.  We unpack how Black women and girls become invisible when policy and research default to frameworks built around either race or gender alone. That invisibility has consequ...

Send us Fan Mail Jane Ryan, a dedicated human rights lawyer, discusses the failures and biases embedded in our prisons—especially for pregnant women and women of colour. This episode reveals the grim realities hidden behind closed doors—and the urgent need for systemic change. Jane discusses the importance of listening to women’s voices, sharing powerful stories on how systemic neglect and outdate...

Send us Fan Mail The law wants clean lines and final answers, but people live in grey areas. We sit down with Susie Miller, the playwright behind Inter Alia and the writer of Prima Facie, to unpack what “binary justice” does to real human stories and why courts can struggle when truth, trauma, and context refuse to fit a neat box. Drawing on her background in criminal defence and human rights law,...

Send us Fan Mail We went to a free women’s self-defence class run by Wing Tsun London in memory of Sarah Everard, and what stayed with us wasn’t bravado, it was clarity. Wing Tsun training makes “safety” feel less like a vague hope and more like a practical skill you can build, step by step, with your own body. We get into the roots of Wing Tsun Masters as a martial art and self-defence system wit...

Send us Fan Mail Secret classrooms. A decades-long fight for a pardon. A church trying to reckon with slavery. We move through stories that show how justice is pursued when systems stall, deny, or look away and what resilience looks like when it has to be practical, not performative.  We start by sharing reporting from The View magazine: Pro Su Hakim’s grassroots education initiative after the Tal...

Send us Fan Mail Education can be a turning point or a locked door, and too often we design universities to keep the “wrong” people out. We sit down with Anne-Marie Day from Manchester Met to ask what higher education should do for people with lived experience of the justice system, and why scholarships are not a nice extra but a concrete part of decarceration, prevention, and reducing reoffending...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the law’s most vulnerable clients meet the system at its most rigid? We trace the rise of a student‑led pro bono centre determined to give women real access to justice—from survivors of domestic abuse and single mothers to refugees and women in custody—while exposing the hidden mechanics that keep help out of reach. Our guests share how early encounters with pris...

Send us Fan Mail Justice doesn’t begin with a verdict; it starts in classrooms, homes, and everyday choices that shape who gets pulled into the system long before an arrest. We sit down with lawyer and educator Courtney Teasley to explore how prevention beats punishment when communities are armed with the right knowledge, resources, and strategy. Courtney traces a path from growing up in a disprop...

Send us Fan Mail Issue 16 is not an interview. It is a response. In this episode, writers, editors, and contributors from The View Magazine reflect on the themes, questions, and tensions explored in Issue 16 — justice, resistance, wrongful imprisonment, mental health, Gaza, and institutional failure. These are personal reflections, professional insight, and honest reactions to stories that demand...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when women in prison need healthcare—and no one listens? In this episode, we examine the systemic failures in women’s prison healthcare through a powerful conversation with human rights solicitor Rebecca Alonso. We explore how outsourced services, understaffing, and gender-blind medical systems leave women in pain, ignored, and without accountability. Drawing on lived...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the justice system asks for a victim impact statement, then offers no support? In this episode of Rebel Justice , we speak with Rhia Canady , founder of Flygirl Foundation , about life on remand, the shock of release, and the stigma faced by mothers serving short sentences. Rhia shares how she survived Eastwood Park , why post-release systems fail women, and how...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we speak with Amy Van Zyl about trauma, motherhood, and dignity within child-protection systems. Amy shares her experience of losing her children for eight and a half months following a mental health crisis, and how that period informed the creation of Her Circle, a charity led by women with lived experience. The conversation delves into the complexities of mother...

Send us Fan Mail What if the safest path to psychedelic healing starts with strong laws, trained facilitators, and honest conversations about risk? We sit down with legal advocates and a licensed psychotherapist to map a responsible route from stigma to structure—one that replaces the shadows of the underground with clarity, ethics, and care. We unpack how regulation reduces harm and expands acces...

Send us Fan Mail What if the most practical path to justice starts with listening harder than we speak? We sit down with Judith Moran, director of Quaker Social Action, to trace a journey from Victorian philanthropy to community-led solutions that protect dignity in the face of poverty, grief, and homelessness. Grounded in a clear definition of poverty as a lack of resources to meet minimum needs—...

Send us Fan Mail The courtroom looks orderly from the gallery, but behind the wigs and gowns is a profession running on grit, late nights, and vending machines. We sit down with criminal defense barrister Kate Kelleher and the Criminal Bar Association’s James Rosseter to reveal how the Criminal Bar keeps fairness alive while the system strains at every seam. Kate maps the quiet collapse of camarad...

Send us Fan Mail Justice feels distant until it isn’t. We open the doors to a courtroom few ever truly see, where trauma arrives with every case and formality—the wig, the gown, the ritual—exists to contain it. With barrister Kate Kelleher and Criminal Bar Association communications lead James Rossiter, we explore how lawyers hold the line between empathy and evidence while facing impossible timel...

Send us Fan Mail Modern slavery isn’t far away or long ago. It’s here, woven into daily life, and too often dismissed as something else. We sit down with Lauren Saunders, Deputy Director of Frontline Services at Unseen, to uncover how exploitation hides in UK homes, care settings, nail bars, construction sites and supply chains—and what it takes to bring people to safety and hold perpetrators to a...

Send us Fan Mail We sit down with Dr Juliette Brown, an NHS consultant psychiatrist and climate activist facing a retrial after a hung jury, and Sir Jonathan Porritt, a leading environmental thinker who has returned to civil disobedience, to explore how conscience, health, and the law collide in today’s UK. Together, we unpack Defend Our Juries, the grassroots campaign centred on a simple principl...

Send us Fan Mail A detention centre meant to correct young men became a blueprint for how institutions can enable predators. We dig into Medomsley’s regime of fear, the violence that greeted boys at the gate, and the sexual abuse that flourished where power went unchecked. Guided by survivors’ testimonies and an in-depth conversation with the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman behind Operation Dearne...

Send us Fan Mail Our latest Rebel Justice Podcast offers a powerful preview of The View Magazine Issue 15, weaving first‑hand testimony, hard data and practical solutions across prisons, youth custody, social care and community action. If these stories move you, pre‑order Issue 15 at https://theviewmag.org.uk/product/the-view-magazine-issue-15/ , subscribe to support this work, and share the episo...

Send us Fan Mail Imagine serving three months for a non‑violent offence and imagine being released with no priority for housing, and a wall between you and your child. That’s the hidden sentence thousands of mothers face, and it’s where Not Beyond Redemption steps in with free legal advice and representation to keep families together. We sit with founder and solicitor Camilla Baldwin and solicitor...

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, we talk to Dr Sarah Benn, a GP who moved from decades of practice to non‑violent climate action. How did Dr Sarah go from sitting outside an oil terminal with a small placard, to ending up behind bars?  Dr Sarah explains why civil resistance, done non‑violently, can be a legitimate public health intervention when petitions and policy promises fail. We...

Send us Fan Mail In part two of our series with The Vavengers, Rebel Justice is joined by Sir Max Hill KC, former Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales, alongside The Vavengers’ CEO, Sema Gornall and activist Mam Lisa Camara Together, they unpack the legal, political, and global dimensions of the fight to end female genital mutilation (FGM); and the creation of the world’s first co...

Send us Fan Mail In this powerful first episode of a two-part series, Rebel Justice speaks with Sema Gornall, CEO of The Vavengers, and Mam Lisa Camara, a Gambian women’s rights activist and survivor of female genital mutilation (FGM). The Vavengers are a survivor-led organisation using advocacy, art, and community mobilisation to end FGM and gender-based violence. Sema shares the organisation’s o...