A switchback on the road: our journey to the common ground

Issues of criminal justice are often painted in stark black and white. 

Victim or offender. Tough or soft. Hang ‘em or hug ‘em.

Yet, from our previous work together at Switchback (the charity founded by Alice and which Sam later helped to grow), supporting hundreds of young people to find a way out of the justice system, we learned that matters of crime and justice are rarely so straightforward.

That everyone is capable of good and bad. 

That it’s possible to be both a perpetrator and a victim of harm. 

That when making big life changes, people need care and support, but they often need to be challenged too.

Being comfortable with complexity in this way always felt countercultural in a binary justice system. We knew, however, that it lay at the heart of Switchback’s unusual success, whereby only 1 in 10 young people reoffend, compared to around half nationally.

That’s because from the beginning, while Switchback’s intensive 1-to-1 model recognised (and confronted) the social roots of crime, we never told young people they were just victims of circumstance, blown around by wider forces. We instead encouraged their agency and potential to take control – with our support.

This combined message of realism and hope continues to find resonance among young people at Switchback today. It doesn’t mean letting the government off the hook, it means a broader belief in accountability and change, for both the individual and the system.

Listening deeper

This reflection about Switchback’s comfort with complexity led us to a new question. With prisons at breaking point, reoffending sky-high and victim satisfaction rock-bottom, how could this lesson be applied more widely, to a justice system stuck in a circular, polarised debate?

We believed that saying the same things louder, or framing them differently, wouldn’t be enough. Instead, we saw a need to step back and really listen. To discover where there might be common ground among the public for a fresh approach, especially within communities, often in poorer areas, most affected by crime – people underrepresented at the top of the media, policymaking, charity and academia.

Uncovering political space 

A timely and insightful report by Better Justice emboldened our thinking, confirming our feeling that justice reform isn’t held back by a lack of evidence or data, but by a lack of political space for action, a pervasive sense among politicians that challenging the status quo is too risky.

We were also encouraged by the support we received from others – whether funders, former prisoners, practitioners or charity leaders – who quietly shared our frustration with the sector’s comfort in speaking to people who already agreed, but somewhat less so with people outside the bubble.

With a new government in place, there’s a feeling that change may finally be on the horizon. But given the wider political context, the scale of action on justice needed is by no means guaranteed. By launching the Common Ground Justice Project, our hope is to play our part by uncovering new political space and public appetite for reform. To find a new way forward that commands broad support – towards a more thoughtful, modern justice system that works for all of society.