Inquiry Homepage

Welcome to the homepage of the Caritas Leeds Criminal Justice Inquiry.

Whether you want to learn more about the inquiry, know more about the criminal justice system, or you want to know how the Catholic Diocese can do more to help people in this area, this is the place to start.

The inquiry was a two year process of interviewing people across the criminal justice system within the area of the Diocese of Leeds. We drew out themes from this data and wrote a report on our findings. In this video our commissioners talk about what they learned:

Using the themes and the interviews, we made a series of recommendations about how the Diocese at all levels can improve the lives of people affected by criminal justice issues.

The report was launched in October 2020, and a series of resources made to help the church going forward. For example, our guide to the criminal justice system has descriptions of its different parts, such as the police, the courts, and probation.

We were particularly interested in restorative justice, a process whereby victims and offenders can have contact to discuss what happened between them, and amends can be made. We also wanted to show ways in which people can volunteer throughout the system.

Finally, we produced a local directory of the many agencies within the region involved in criminal justice in our area.