Gemma started her career as an administrator in a restorative justice charity. She then trained as a social researcher in academia primarily working on projects commissioned by the Home Office and the Youth Justice Board with a criminal and social justice focus on domestic policy as well as the potential application of  European and Canadian approaches. Her interest in research at the intersection between these systems felt like a natural progression for an inquisitive person fresh from studying a BSc in social policy and an MSc in criminal justice policy.

Volunteering inspired a move into the voluntary sector, where she supported two large-scale European-funded justice programmes for children and young adults in and leaving custody, working closely with practitioners and policymakers to re-engineer resettlement processes. Here, she was an early pioneer of lived experience engagement, supporting young people to share their views with civil servants to help shape more effective policy, and working with them to co-create a resettlement toolkit as a self-help resource for their peers. 

Gemma then worked in Parliament for over a decade, primarily for the Justice Select Committee, as their specialist on youth justice, sentencing, prisons, and probation. She supported them in undertaking influential inquiries on many aspects of criminal justice policy and practice and in learning from international practice. She worked across the committees supporting staff development through training, coaching, and action learning sets.

She has undertaken in-depth training in systems diagnosis and systems innovation and foundational training in storytelling, and Deep Democracy at the School of System Change. She also has a Btec in mentoring gained as a mentor with a youth offending team.

Co-Director of Justice Futures CIC

Gemma Buckland | LinkedIn

Anita has spent her career in the voluntary sector. She used her academic grounding in social science and policy to support her many roles at the Howard League for Penal Reform. She took leadership roles at the charity in policy and public affairs and led its research brief for more than 15 years. As research director she sought to develop the charity’s evidence-base and research capacity, enhance its academic support networks and provide knowledge exchange and learning opportunities. She is a member of the UKRI ESRC Grant Assessment Panel, has been a REF panel member in both 2014 (law) and 2021 (social policy and social work), and was managing editor of the Howard Journal of Crime and Justice. Some of her recent work has focussed on the relationship between gambling related harms and crime, hope and probation and health in prison. Anita advocates for more participatory and creative research methodologies.

Co-Director

Anita Dockley | LinkedIn