Criminal Justice Policy, Campaigns and Research

Our work across the Criminal Justice Sector aims to increase the awareness of Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller people’s needs at all stages of the justice system. We aim to highlight the need for improved alternative to custody models, the higher usage of diversion schemes, and for those in custody, improved support in prisons.

We conduct research and advocacy in regard to Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller people in the criminal justice system. To raise awareness of the unequal outcomes and disproportionate representation across the CJS we take several approaches internally, and work with stakeholders and government departments to achieve the following outcomes:

• Produce a strong evidence base outlining main issues for Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller people in the criminal justice system
• Highlight the need for Roma to be recorded in HMPPS and MoJ ethnicity data
• Demand reform to overcome inequality in the justice system.
• Campaign to reduce the disproportionate representation of Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller Men, Women and Youth in the justice system.
• Support Government departments to work toward suitable interventions and toolkits to aid long-term rehabilitation for Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller people in the criminal justice system
• Promote the increased inclusion and visibility Romani (Gypsy), Roma and IRish Traveller people’s experiences in research and reports by the third sector and government
• Advocate for improved processes in data collection to enable consistent and routine ethnic monitoring across the entire CJS.
• Create a strong network of other CJS organisations and professionals to work with us on our campaigns and highlight the need to include Romani(Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller people’s experiences of inequality in the justice system.

Our recent areas of focus to date have been exploring why Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller children experience the school to prison pipeline and how it can be interrupted

The ‘school to prison pipeline’ is a term used to describe the path from school exclusion to entry into prison. Increasingly, schools are moving towards no tolerance policies which result in permanent exclusions, particularly for children from Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller and other ethnic minority backgrounds. These children are overrepresented in Young Offender Institutions.

We have also produced a range of briefings looking into Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller experiences of custody, covering Mental Health, Education in Prison, the Use of Force and a number of reports that focus on youth justice and Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Travellers youth’s experiences of the justice system. This has included our report Overlooked and Overrepresented (2016) and a number of briefings that focus on the needs of Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller youth.

Equality of opportunity, reduce exclusions and highlight discriminatory practices, together with the knowledge we have on the youth justice system. This report will highlight the key issues, and importantly take a solution-based approach to asking for change in the education system, to address the disproportionality we see in the Youth Justice system

Throughout this project, we will be providing webinars to help educate and advocate on how the barriers facing Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller people in the justice system can be removed, and what steps can be taken to improve the outcomes of those in contact with the justice system