The Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition is a new alliance of charitable trusts and foundations seeking to transform how women are treated by the criminal justice system.

Our twenty members are all grant-makers, with years of experience of working in the criminal justice system. Every year they invest millions of pounds in supporting charities working with offenders. This experience gives them considerable knowledge of what works to reduce women’s offending.

In 2007, Baroness Jean Corston led a review of women in the criminal justice system. Her report made the case for a completely new approach to women’s offending which would mean that fewer women commit crime, and the state would need to spend far less on keeping women in prison.

The Corston recommendations drew heavily from the innovative work of charities in the criminal justice system, much of which was funded by charitable trusts and foundations.

In June 2008, a group of trusts and foundations wrote a letter to Jack Straw, the Secretary of State for Justice, which was published in the Guardian. It pledged funders’ continuing commitment to implementing the Corston recommendations. Subsequently a number of those funders who had signed the letter decided to formalise their relationship and became the Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition.

The Coalition aims to get ongoing political support and sustainable funding for the full implementation of the Corston recommendations in England and Wales.

The members of the Coalition are:
Antigone
Appletree Fund
The Barrow Cadbury Trust
The Bromley Trust
The City Bridge Trust
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund
Edwina Grosvenor
J. Paul Getty Jr. Trust
LankellyChase Foundation
The McGrath Charitable Trust
The Monument Trust
The Nationwide Foundation
The Oak Foundation
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
The Pilgrim Trust
The Rank Foundation
Rosa
Swan Mountain Trust
Wakefield and Tetley Trust
Wates Foundation

The advocate and spokesperson for the Coalition is Antonia Bance. Please contact Antonia in the first instance about anything to do with the Coalition, including all press queries.