Ep 56. Anne Fox, CEO Clinks, and Ruth Armstrong, Director Justice Matters: Re-imagining Criminal Justice

This episode looks at leadership, evidence, and systems change in one of the most complex areas of public policy: the criminal justice system. We are joined by two leaders who work at the heart of this system.

Anne Fox, outgoing Chief Executive of Clinks, the national infrastructure body that supports and represents voluntary organisations working with people in contact with the criminal justice system and their families. Clinks plays a vital role amplifying frontline voices and ensuring lived experience shapes policy and commissioning.

And Dr Ruth Armstrong, Director of Justice Matters. Ruth is a lawyer, academic and criminologist whose work focuses on helping organisations use evidence, and co-production with those who have lived experience, to deliver lasting change.

Together, we explore the current state of criminal justice in the UK. What re-imagining the system might look like, how we need to build community for those coming out of the system, and what we all, as a society, need to do to build a world where we can all be safe.

It's a provocative conversation. Trigger warnings: we discuss criminality, violent offences and suicide.

Recorded February 2026. Episode sponsored by EdenTree Investment Management

Secret Life of Prisons podcast: Clinks Conference 2026, Lord James Timpson and Anne Fox

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/live-at-clinks-conference-2026-lord-james-timpson-and/id1481971681?i=1000747623671