The Transform Justice Podcast

The US has guns, we have knives. Knife crime is often at the centre of our dialogue around crime, public safety, and urban youth culture. But is it on the rise? In this episode hosts Rob and Penelope are joined by Jon Yates, chief executive of the Youth Endowment Fund, and Craig Pinkney, criminologoist and urban youth specialist. They discuss the loaded dialogue around knife crime, why people carr...

With a general election just around the corner, all eyes are on the parties’ plans for a new government. In this special election episode, our hosts Penelope and Rob are joined by Rick Muir, Director of the Police Foundation to discuss the parties’ plans for justice.  Will more police, more prisons, and harsher punishments fix a justice system on its knees? And will a new government listen to the...

Last year, 82 volunteers armed with booklets, pens and a desire to see justice in action took to London's magistrates' courts and observed over 1000 hearings. They diligently recorded what they saw and heard, and provided Transform Justice with a wealth of insights into the often unseen goings-on of the magistrates' courts. In this episode, hosts Rob and Penelope are joined by passiona...

No one wants to be a victim of a scam, especially in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. Yet, whether it's phishing, benefit fraud, insurance scams, or online romance cons, fraud is only on the rise and now constitutes over 40% of all crime in the UK. In this episode, hosts Penelope and Rob are joined by experts Nicola Harding, CEO of We Fight Fraud ,  and Michael Levi, Professor of Criminol...

There are now more than 200,000 people on probation across England and Wales. The original duties of a probation officer were clear-cut: 'advise, assist, and befriend.' But with staff shortages and unmanageable caseloads leading to limited contact time, and power imbalance built into each interaction, are probation officers able to develop meaningful relationships and help people to turn t...

With prisons projected to hold 94,000 people by March 2025, and new miscarriages of justice emerging each week, it's clear our justice system is in crisis. In this episode, hosts Penelope and Rob dive deeper into a handful of the biggest issues facing our criminal justice system today. Penelope talks us through the single justice procedure, recently brought to mainstream attention in the after...

It is estimated that over half the prison population is neurodivergent, including people who are autistic or have ADHD or a brain injury. Is society's failure to understand neurodivergence leading to disproportionate criminalisation? In this episode, Rob and Penelope are joined by MP and former Lord Chancellor Sir Robert Buckland and Angela Kirwin, criminal justice author. They discuss the fac...

This episode was recorded in October 2023. Tens of thousands of people are released from prison each year in England and Wales - but many of them return to the outside world without safe and appropriate housing waiting for them. Some are forced into unsafe living situations, others become homeless, and some may even reoffend in order to return to the relative stability of prison. In this eye-openi...

Content warning: this episode discusses reporting and court processes for sexual abuse. No graphic descriptions of sexual abuse are included. Rape is widely acknowledged as one of the worst crimes someone can commit. So why do so few reports of rape result in a conviction? In this difficult but important episode, hosts Rob and Penelope are joined by criminologist Betsy Stanko OBE and criminal and...

Many of our political leaders seem hell-bent on increasing conviction rates as well as sentence lengths for many crimes. But why? In this episode, hosts Rob and Penelope are joined by Rory Stewart, former prisons Minister and co-presenter of the Rest is Politics podcast, and Stephen Bush, associate editor at the Financial Times. We explore how the last few decades of roller-coaster British politic...

The wrongful conviction of Andrew Malkinson has been making headlines since summer. But did you know that more than 1,500 potential miscarriages of justice are sent to the Criminal Cases Review Commission each year? Even more shockingly, less than 30 of these actually make it back to the Court of Appeal. In this episode, hosts Rob and Penelope are joined by Dr Jon Robins, freelance journalist, and...

Problem-solving courts have long been hailed as a progressive alternative to traditional punishment. In theory, these experimental courtrooms recognise and address the root causes of crime and humanise those who come into contact with the criminal justice system. And some research shows they lead to better outcomes. But today we ask: are problem-solving courts the answer, or are they a barrier to...

In this experimental episode of the Transform Justice podcast, hosts Penelope and Rob ask each other questions about their areas of expertise. Covering broad ground from prison overcrowding to the court backlog and digital justice, our hosts paint a picture of a justice system in crisis. This episode asks why can't our justice system cope? And will current proposals help or hinder progress tow...

Abundant evidence shows that the criminal justice system disproportionately impacts minoritised communities, and many reports have made recommendations to tackle discrimination in the courts. Yet racist treatment of lawyers, defendants, witnesses, and even judges by other court actors persists. In this episode, hosts Penelope and Rob are joined by Abimbola Johnson, barrister at Doughty Street Cham...

PLEASE NOTE: This episode contains detailed and sometimes graphic descriptions of domestic abuse. Although public awareness of domestic abuse has risen in recent decades, it remains a widespread issue. How the police and courts should respond to cases of domestic abuse is a huge topic of discussion within criminal justice, and many feel current processes do not do enough to support survivors. In t...

Should asking for 50p or feeding pigeons land you in prison? In this episode we discuss anti-social behaviour injunctions, and the harsh outcomes that can occur when they are breached.  Hosts Rob and Penelope are joined by Dr Rona Epstein, researcher at Coventry Law School, and James Stark, barrister. They share cases which resulted in disproportionately severe punishment, and question current app...

There are wonderful success stories of people using time in prison to pursue education, learn new skills, and even earn degrees. But the reality of prison education is a lot more complex than many realise. Between staff shortages, waitlists, and limited resources, accessing appropriate education on the inside can be a minefield. In this episode, guests David Breakspear, peer mentor at Revolving Do...

"Justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done." Lord Hewart's oft-quoted phrase is just as relevant almost 100 years on. In this episode, we ask how transparent justice processes are in two courts - the Court of Protection and the Family Court. Hosts Rob and Penelope are joined by Sanchia Berg, BBC radio correspondent, and Celia Kitzinger, co-director of the Open J...

The notorious Post Office scandal saw a thousand people falsely accused of theft or false accounting because of a known computer system bug. The Post Office itself conducted the investigations and prosecutions which left some of its former employees imprisoned or bankrupt. In this episode, hosts Penelope and Rob are joined by Paul Marshall, barrister, and Richard Moorhead, Professor of Law at Exet...

More than 12 million people in England and Wales have a criminal record, many for old or minor offences. The vast majority have already moved on with their lives, but for many their criminal record still haunts them, preventing them from gaining employment or developing in their career. In this episode, our hosts Penelope and Rob bring together campaigning expertise from the UK and US contexts to...

Most crime has gone down in recent years, but police have been criticised for not resolving more of the crime that does happen. In this episode, hosts Penelope and Rob ask Richard Horton, retired police officer and prize-winning blogger, and Rick Muir, Director of the Police Foundation, what is preventing police from solving more crime. We discuss over-reliance on the police in cases better addres...

In this episode. we discuss different ways of resolving crime without going to court and ask why these methods are little used or understood despite evidence showing they can have a positive impact on preventing reoffending. Dr Peter Neyroud @pwneyroud Learn more about Peter’s work at https://www.crim.cam.ac.uk/People/peter-neyroud Pavan Dhaliwal @RevDoors Visit the Revolving Doors website for mor...

Should parents be prosecuted when their children miss school? Stories of term-time holidays dominate the news on this subject, but in this episode Rob and Penelope hear from Ellie Costello, Director of Square Peg, and Polly Sweeney of Rook Irwin Sweeney about the reality of persistent absenteeism: chronic illness, waitlists, and impossible attendance expectations. We discuss whether prosecution is...

Can someone be convicted of murder if they weren't the one who wielded the knife? According to the legal doctrine known as joint enterprise, yes they can. In this episode Rob and Penelope are joined by Jan Cunliffe, Director of campaigning group JENGbA, and Nisha Waller, PhD researcher at the University of Oxford, to explore this controversial common law which can see ten children convicted for a...

This week rather than talking about people accused or suspected of rule breaking, we ask why most people comply with rules and regulations most of the time. Our hosts Penelope and Rob are joined by Tim Newburn, Professor of Criminology and Social Policy at LSE, and Adam Wagner, barrister at Doughty Street Chambers to discuss the prerequisites for social compliance, how norms such as smoking indoor...