Yasmin Qureshi MP Has agreed to host a meeting at House of Commons on how we should shape our attitudes to Justice in the 21st century.

We tend to have a strictly legal approach to justice where punishment and deterrence through the state is paramount. And yet it does not appear to be working well. We have one of the highest prison populations in Europe and a high rate of re offending. Clearly our legalistic approach is not strictly successful. At this meeting we would like to look at some of the initiatives now taking place around the process of rehabilitation, reducing offending rates and community involvement through restorative justice – an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of the victims and the offenders and that can involve local communities.

You can find out more and register here …

Helping us in is this discussion are,

Yasmin Qureshi MP. Yasmin has been actively involved in community work for over twenty years with the Citizen Advice Bureau and local law centres. She has been the governor for a college and three schools. She is passionate about public service and firm in her commitment to work for the people of Bolton South-east. Yasmin has worked in the Government Legal Service and the Crown Prosecution Service. She was the Head of the Criminal Legal Section of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and later the Director of the department of Judicial Administration in Kosovo. Yasmin has acted as Human Rights advisor to the former London Mayor Ken Livingstone.

Neena Samota (MA, MPhil) Neena is a research consultant with eleven years of professional experience in developing evidence-led research in the voluntary sector. As policy and research manager at Nacro, the crime reduction charity, she was involved in influencing criminal justice policy at both local and national levels. Neena’s policy and research expertise spans criminal justice, mental health and social policy issues. She managed, led and authored several research and evaluation reports at Nacro for a range of clients including the National Offender Management Service, Home Office and voluntary sector organisations. Neena has done substantial policy and research work on a range of subject areas such as youth crime, mental health, prisoners, resettlement, restorative justice, the BAME voluntary sector and equality issues within criminal justice. Neena currently chairs the Coalition for Racial Justice (UK), is a trustee on the Board for Voice4Change England and a member of the action group StopWatch.

Dr. Theo Gavrielides is the Founder and Director of Independent Academic Research Studies (IARS). He is also a Visiting Professor in Youth Policy at Buckinghamshire New University, a Visiting Professorial Research Fellow at Panteion University of Social & Political Science (Greece), a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research (ICCCR) at Open University (UK) and a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Criminology and Justice Research, Department of Justice, Mount Royal University (Canada).

IARSis a leading, international think-tank with a charitable mission to give everyone a chance to forge a safer, fairer and more inclusive society.

They achieve their charitable aims by producing evidence-basedsolutions to current social problems, sharing best practice and by supporting young people and the community to shape decision making. IARS is an international expert in criminal justice, restorative justice, human rights and inclusion, citizenship and user-led research.