Humanity as Reform: Restorative Justice and the Court Backlog
This is a blog by our Volunteer, Hillary Kwok. The information presented in this excerpt has been derived from research conducted by the UK Ministry of Justice. For full details and original sources, please visit Ministry of Justice – Modernising Justice.
Imagine being a victim of a crime and waiting two years for your case to reach court. Or being a young first-time offender of a petty crime, your life completely put on hold while the system slowly processes your case. This is the reality of the criminal justice system in England and Wales today.
A system in crisis
Today, cases are arriving at a pace the system is simply not equipped to manage. Since the pandemic, the Ministry of Justice has reported the UK court system to be struggling with a backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases. Defendants await years to go to trial, a delay that too often results in outcomes that fail everyone involved, and can retraumatise victims in the process. For rape victims alone, the average wait period spans 423 days. There are reportedly over 6,000 cases that have been sitting for over two years.
Despite over £287 million being invested in the court estate and £126 million in criminal legal aid, the system continues to struggle under growing demand, suggesting that more fundamental reform is needed. Simply increasing funding will not resolve the issue so easily. The criminal justice system represents a deeply flawed and long-neglected structure that often operates in ways that isolate and exclude individuals in the name of justice. In many cases, the rights of incarcerated individuals are marginalized, and their humanity is diminished by a system that
claims to deliver justice while simultaneously prioritising punishment and social control.
As the government continues to pursue reform legislation, such as the Courts and Tribunals Bill, which is anticipated to free up approximately 27,000 sitting days per year through judge-alone trials and expanded magistrates’ sentencing powers, and is projected to reduce the demand in the crown court by 20%, there is progress made to address the immediate overflow of cases. However, the underlying causes of the problem remain neglected.
Restorative Justice: tackling the cause, not just the consequences
If the current crisis is only understood as a structural problem, the response will continue only focusing on structural solutions. Funding, more court sitting days, and faster case processes are all valuable initiatives, but the overwhelming number of cases is not simply attributable to inefficiency. The central problem goes beyond fixing processing times, but addressing why so many continue entering the system in the first place.
Embedding restorative justice more effectively into the traditional court system will directly address one of the main drivers of the court demand; reoffending. A form of rehabilitation for both parties, it to repairs harm through voluntary and carefully facilitated dialogue amongst those affected. Giving individuals who have been convicted of crimes the dignity to be included in conversations about their actions, as opposed to further excluding them, helps to explain the structural inequalities that contributed to their offending. Addressing these underlying issues not only reduces the likelihood of reoffending, but also helps to prevent individuals of similar circumstance from following the same path.
Dignity intersects with the criminal justice system as an essential element to achieving and ensuring justice. As the criminal justice system operates to uphold law, order, and social stability, it systematically authorizes restricting individual freedom through incarceration. Humanity serves as a necessary counterbalance to the authority of the criminal justice system, grounding its power in preserving human dignity.
It is within this tension between authority and humanity that restorative justice is all the more significant. At its core, restorative justice seeks to bridge the gap between crime and those affected by it through dialogue and genuine accountability. By humanizing those who commit offences and recognizing the broader context behind criminal behaviour, it is possible to intervene earlier and take precautionary measures to ensure the pattern does not carry forward. It acknowledges the underlying issues driving crime rates, helps resolve individual cases, and prevents future ones from happening.
Embedding restorative justice offers more than just reducing the court backlog. It would contribute to a gradual reduction in reoffending, reducing the overall number of cases in court. While current reforms offer solutions to manage the overwhelming pressure faced by the courts, restorative justice provides mechanisms to reform the system in its entirety and reduce the pressure altogether.
