A CCRC spokesperson explained:
“What concerned us was that over the past five years, we have received only 35 applications from people under the age of 18.
We receive an even lower proportion from under 18s from the black, Asian and minority ethnic populations who make up around 45 per cent of under-18s in custody.
Our video seeks to reflect the facts on the ground so that it stands the best chance of reaching vulnerable young people with convictions who may need to know who we are and what we do for them to make a properly informed decision about what we offer.
We recognise that it’s difficult for the CCRC to speak a language that young people will relate to, understand and engage with – and that’s why we turned to First Class Legacy who suggested arranging a focus group at our offices.
It’s become clear to us as an organisation that we need to have a much stronger presence on social media in order to reach young people. We realise that we cannot simply sit back and expect people to come to us. And how we put our message out is equally important – we cannot simply have lawyers talking at young people in a video.
The video, which has the hashtag #NotTheEndOfTheRoad, produced by the First Class Legacy team, has exceeded all our expectations both in its quality and its message. In terms of feedback, everyone has been so impressed.”
They added:
“Of course we recognise that people in custody will not be able to view the film, but we hope that our open source YouTube video will be shared and viewed as widely as possible so that young people with convictions and their families are aware that the CCRC exists to look again at wrongful convictions.”