ABSTRACT A growing range of criminal justice initiatives are being shaped and delivered by people with lived experience, including peer mentoring, prisoner councils and policy advocacy roles. While often seen as recent innovations, we reveal a deeper, largely unacknowledged history dating back to at least the 19th century. Drawing on archival and documentary research methods, thematic analysis and attention to gaps in the historical record, we identify four roles adopted by criminalised people across the United Kingdom and Ireland, alongside influential comparative examples from the 1800s: custodial contributors, caregivers, defenders of rights and game changers. Our findings illustrate that criminalised people have long contributed to criminal justice systems, challenging injustices and generating knowledge across class positions and locations. Recovering this history reveals a persistent, if unevenly acknowledged, thread shaping penal practices, governance and reform, which enriches participatory justice debates and offers lessons for policymakers and practitioners.
Buck et al. (2026) studied this question.