Neena Samota, Senior Policy Development Officer, Nacro

Neena has worked for Nacro, since 2000 when she first joined the organisation as a Research Officer. Since then she has worked to develop research and policy issues relating to equality and fairness issues in the criminal justice system. Neena works both at a national and local level with criminal justice agencies to develop and implement the equalities agenda. She has prepared and managed many research and evaluation projects for the Prison Service, Home Office, Local Authorities, and IRSS – including a review on guns and gangs for a London borough and the race audit toolkit for the YJB. As a guest lecturer, Neena has been invited to the Universities of Westminster, Kingston and Surrey to talk about race issues and the role of the voluntary sector in risk assessment, risk management and prevention of crime and re-offending. She has presented papers and facilitated workshops at national and international conferences. Neena represents Nacro on statutory and academic advisory groups. She is on the board of trustees for the Coalition for Racial Justice (UK), member of StopWatch and an elected member and current chair of the London Transformative Justice Forum.