In 1992, Will was kidnapped and tortured in a case of mistaken identity. After spending 30 years bottling up the emotions he felt as a result of the attack, Will met one of the people who harmed him in a face-to-face Restorative Justice meeting. The meeting changed his life completely.

The Common Ground Justice Project have published a new report called ‘Held to account’, exploring the “loss of confidence in the criminal justice system and what the public actually want from reform to rebuild trust”. The report begins with co-founder Jacob Dunne sharing his experience of Restorative Justice, meeting the parents of James Hodgkinson, the […]

Why me? welcomes the call for better communication about Restorative Justice for people injured or bereaved through road crime in a new report published by the Victims’ Commissioner. The report, Forgotten Victims: Barriers to Justice Following a Road Traffic Collision, highlights how lengthy investigations, poor communication and inconsistent support aggravates the suffering experienced by many victims […]

This is a guest blog by Srila Devi, a freelance journalist and author, currently training as a restorative practitioner. She writes about restorative justice, psychology and spirituality on her website and Substack, The Deeper Story.   Belgium’s new criminal code came into force last week, marking a significant shift in the country’s approach to crime […]

The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has shared an update on the Early Release Scheme under the new Sentencing Act which is due to come into force in October. The key highlights from the update including additional offences which will be excluded from the Early Release Scheme and a package of support that will be made […]

This week, Why me?, in collaboration with Belong: Making Justice Happen and The Common Ground Justice Project, wrote to the new Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending Catherine McKinnell to highlight the sectors’ ongoing concerns about the new ReHub policy which has introduced a presumption of unsuitability for Restorative Justice in certain categories of crime. Our […]

A UNIVERSITY of Gloucestershire professor has called on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to place restorative justice at the heart of prison policy, arguing that reducing reoffending must take priority ove...

Learning from the voices of experience – MS Teams, Thu 30 Jul 2026 - What do the people who have been through Restorative Justice want us to know? Why do people share their stories and how can we empower them to do it well? In this Why me? forum we will explore how the testimony of people who have been through Restorative Justice is a crucial part of rai...

This week, following the new ministerial appointments by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Why me? contacted the relevant ministers calling on them to support wider access to Restorative Justice. We have written to the new Ministers for Prisons, Violence Against Women and Girls, and Justice to share the power of Restorative Justice and urge them to […]

This is a guest blog by our Volunteer, Leah Stanley. I have been volunteering with Why me? for a while now and I really believe Restorative Justice matters. Restorative Justice puts people, not just process, at the centre. It gives those affected by harm a chance to be heard, and it gives those who caused […]

At the beginning of the month, the Government announced that they are conducting an independent review into the prison system in England and Wales. They explained that the rationale behind this decision was the “ongoing and future challenges that are not widely understood, shaped by pressures across capacity, safety and decency, security and rehabilitation, as […]