Experts Beyond Bars

We’re committed to ensuring that everything we do is grounded in the experiences of people leaving prison. One of the ways we do this is through our Experts Beyond Bars (EBB) group.  

EBB is formed of StandOut participants who meet monthly to discuss topical social justice issues, contribute to policy debate, and play a key role in shaping the strategy and direction of StandOut’s work, ensuring that it remains rooted in the realities of life after prison.

Our Experts Beyond Bars are brilliant advocates for change, who use their collective voice to influence policy and practice.

Our experts have influenced StandOut’s work:

  • Advised on how best to facilitate participant attendance at our Career Hub.

  • Provided essential feedback on our safe working practices, ensuring that they are reflective of the needs of the people we work with.

  • Supported a project to encourage people at HMP Wormwood Scrubs to self-refer to our programme.

  • Helped develop the positive, people-first language we use when talking about the people we work with.

  • Contributed to our curriculum review, resulting in new content and optional reflective material for participants to complete in their own time.

And the wider criminal justice system:

  • Worked with the Ministry of Justice to share feedback on a project being developed for prison leavers.

  • Collaborated with the Ministry of Justice’s Lived Experience Lead, whose role is to make sure that the voices and needs of people with lived experience are heard across the criminal justice system.

  • Contributed to the Prison Reform Trust’s Prisoner Policy Network on their consultation: ‘How does my ethnicity or race affect my experience of prison?’.

"Experts Beyond Bars have so much to give and have already begun to influence spaces and thinking across the Ministry of Justice and will hopefully continue to use their insight and knowledge to influence more to come."

National Lived Experience Lead, Ministry of Justice



"It's genuinely appreciated that our experiences, voices and opinions are heard, matter, and may hopefully positively impact the lives of others - who have not yet experienced the light that StandOut helps to shine in (for many) a very dark time."

StandOut Experts Beyond Bars Member

Find out more about EBB

Do you work in the criminal justice sector? Are you working on a project that might benefit from the insight of people with lived experience of the criminal justice system?