This month Switchback published its Prison Recall Report 2025. This is a piece of participatory action research that demonstrates seven key findings and provides seven key recommendations for urgent change.
It forms a part of Switchback’s Reshape Release campaign, that aims to platform the role of effective resettlement for people leaving prison, to reduce reoffending and give people a real chance to thrive.
Now, we’re proud to share the accompanying illustrated format, a comic strip co-designed with our Experts by Experience Board (EBE) bringing to life the human cost of avoidable recall as well as the life-changing impact of relational support and effective resettlement. It is a usable toolkit for relational support, demonstrating what needs to change on a cultural level in probation in order to impact the prison population crisis and importantly to ensure everyone leaving prison has the chance to live life differently.
The stories depicted in the comic strip are based on the lived experience of our EBE Board and the peer researchers that we listened to during our participatory action research.
Switchback’s Flip the Script campaign strives to amplify the voices of young prison leavers and tell a different story about how people get caught up in and move away from crime. So, when we met with EBE to discuss how to communicate the findings of the report, we were excited to land on a comic strip based on their lived experience and that used empowering imagery while offering busy decision-makers an alternative to the traditional report format. It was a vital goal of our Prison Recall Report to reach the ‘right audiences’ in this case, decision-makers in probation and prison policy, and enable them to take meaningful action to provide the right kind of support. We want this cartoon to be used as a tool that helps probation leaders and officers understand the incredible power in building relationships of trust with people on probation.
To achieve this, we collaborated with graphic novelist, cartoonist, illustrator, designer, researcher and educator Michael D. Kennedy, whose body of work strikes a political emotional tone and draws on his own British and West Indian experiences.
Michael and Switchback collaborated closely with our EBE board throughout the process, including holding an ideation session for EBE members to share their experiences and offer creative input on how the characters in the comic should speak, look and feel.
Click below to read Switchback’s Prison Recall Report 2025:
- Recent data released by the government (24.04.25) reveals a dramatic rise in the number of people being recalled to prison. The figures show that recall has risen by 45% compared to the same quarter last year (October to December 2024).
- Whilst this figure is taken from the period that the early release scheme came into operation, it reflects a wider trend in the escalating rates of recall.
- Between July and September 2024, 14,920 people were released from prison, and 9,975 were recalled for breaching their licence conditions.
Sian Williams, Switchback CEO, “This peer-led report provides workable solutions to real-world problems that – if implemented – have the potential to change lives and significantly reduce both reoffending and the total number of people in prison. This Prison Recall Report clearly indicates that the existing system of prison release and recall is not working and needs reform.
Our research shows there is a better way. We must invest in creating better relationships between prison leavers and probation officers and offer mentorship to every person who wants it so that people receive effective support, not just superficial oversight. We must factor individual neurodiversity and literacy needs into how we are communicating to people on probation so that people understand their rights and responsibilities. And we must take seriously the long-lasting negative impact of being recalled on someone’s ability to move away from crime. Recall should be a last option, not a first resort.”
Daniel Mills, Switchback Policy and Public Affairs Lead, “The Prison Recall Report agrees with The Independent Sentencing Review, which made a clear case for reforming the recall system to reduce prison capacity and create safer communities. This report provides deep insight from people with lived experience, on what is going wrong with the existing system and sets out a path forward to reforming the recall system.
Switchback are keen to work with a cross-party of MP’s and organisations to Reshape Release so that more people can live life differently. This problem is driving the prison capacity crisis. In one quarter in 2024, there were 4 recalls for every 5 prison releases. If we do not solve this problem we cannot address the capacity crisis.”
Please email policy@switchback.org.uk if you would like to talk to Switchback and our Experts by Experience Board about this work.
A thank you to Toynbee Hall, who partnered with us and consulted us on this piece of work.
We’re particularly grateful for the support of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Barrow Cadbury Trust for their generous support over the last three years. Their funding was instrumental in building the expertise and capacity of Switchback and our Experts by Experience Board, allowing us to produce work such as this.
From charitable trusts to employers providing work experience for Trainees, we are very grateful to the fantastic partners and supporters who make Switchback’s work possible. Thank you to all those who made this report possible.
