August 11, 2025
Bounce Back and The Clinks Respond to the Independent Review of Prison Capacity
Bounce Back Statement
August 2025
Bounce Back welcomes the direction reflected in Dame Anne Owers’ Independent Review of Prison Capacity and fully supports the response submitted by Clinks. The review represents a vital and long-overdue opportunity to reframe how our justice system understands and responds to crime, sentencing, and rehabilitation. We are particularly encouraged by its recognition of the urgent need to move away from ineffective custodial solutions—especially short sentences—and towards community-based approaches grounded in prevention, proportionality, and rehabilitation.
We strongly endorse the review’s call for a significant reduction in the use of short custodial sentences. These sentences are often too brief to provide meaningful intervention and too disruptive to the stability individuals are working hard to build—particularly in relation to employment, housing, and family connections. As the review rightly highlights, the overuse of prison not only fails to address the root causes of offending but can actively worsen long-term outcomes, leading to higher rates of recall, homelessness, and reoffending.
We are proud that our Head of Training, Karen Baker, was able to contribute to the review, alongside many of our third sector colleagues through Clinks and led by Dame Anne Owers. Always ensuring that the voices of our participants, and the frontline staff who support them, are directly reflected in the process. Karen brought with her the lived realities of those navigating the system—people who want to change but too often face systemic barriers that undermine their efforts.
Bounce Back particularly welcomes the review’s recognition of the critical role played by the voluntary sector—not only in delivering services, but in shaping the vision for a more effective, humane justice system. This must be matched by sustained and strategic investment. The sector is not a gap-filler but a key partner with deep expertise in trauma-informed care, resettlement, and long-term engagement with communities most affected by the justice system.
One of the most promising developments in recent years is the growing focus on early intervention and custody diversion—an approach we have championed through our DIVERT project. DIVERT is a Metropolitan Police project funded by London’s Violence Reduction Unit and Delivered by bounce Back. DIVERT provides an in-custody intervention at the first point of contact with the justice system. It is designed to disrupt cycles of offending before they escalate by offering immediate, tailored support and referral into training, education, and employment pathways. DIVERT has already demonstrated strong outcomes and reflects precisely the kind of preventative, collaborative model recommended in the review. The DIVERT App helps community members aged 14-25 by allowing police officers to refer them for education, training, or employment support. Importantly, the police have no further involvement once the referral is made, and your personal information is not stored in any police system.
Our broader portfolio of work supports individuals at every stage of the justice journey—from those on remand or serving short sentences, to people returning to their communities and rebuilding their lives. Through skills training, construction qualifications, employability coaching, mentoring, and lived experience-led support, we see every day what is possible when the system focuses on potential rather than punishment. We also work closely with employers to open up fair opportunities for people with convictions, advocating for inclusive hiring and systemic change in the labour market.
However, we know that rehabilitation cannot succeed without a joined-up system. The review’s findings regarding the challenges facing probation, lack of resettlement planning, and inconsistent community support echo what we see on the ground. Too often, individuals leave prison into instability—with little more than a travel warrant and a short window to comply with strict licence conditions. The result is confusion, fear, and a high risk of breach or recall—further fuelling the capacity crisis. These failures are not only inefficient but profoundly damaging to people who are trying to change.
Dame Anne’s review sets out a credible and long-term roadmap to a more effective system—one that shifts the focus from managing prison numbers to managing outcomes for people. We support the call for a ten-year strategy that includes robust investment in probation and community services, with a distinct focus on gender-specific interventions and trauma-informed approaches.
Crucially, the recommendations highlight the need for true partnership with the voluntary sector—not just in delivery, but in shaping strategy, designing services, and holding the system to account. As Clinks rightly emphasises, this must go beyond rhetoric to include meaningful co-production, secure funding, and shared accountability.
At Bounce Back, we remain committed to this vision. We will continue to work alongside Clinks, HMPPS, the MoJ, and our sector partners to ensure that the findings of this review translate into real and lasting change—for the people we support, the communities we serve, and the society we all share.
Bounce Back
Creating opportunities for change; inside and out
