What We Do
For over 20 years, Natural Justice worked to understand the link between nutrition and offending behaviour. Work began in 1984 under the earliest name of the charity, the South Cumbria Alternative Sentencing Options (SCASO) project, where Bernard Gesch pioneered the notion that nutrition could play a vital role in minimising a relapse into criminal behaviour.
Between 1988 and 1991 nutrition was successfully included as part of community sentencing to reduce the use of custody for juveniles. In many cases the response of the young people appeared to be so positive that it began to attract the positive interest of the national press. Even so, there were no longer funds available to continue the programme or to take it to the next level.
However, in 1991, funds became available from private sources to pursue the dietary approach to behaviour on a more empirical basis, and Natural Justice came into being. Over the next few years, although the government did not take up the initial programme’s ideas, the charity and its central thesis picked up momentum as well as new advocates, and in 1995 the charity’s director, Bernard Gesch, and Natural Justice became affiliated with Surrey University for the purpose of research.
A major piece of research was then undertaken: a two year clinical trial was run at Aylesbury Young Offenders Institution. From 1995-97, field work was conducted at the prison using food supplements as a proxy for a healthy diet. The results of the trial were startling. The prisoners who received active capsules committed 37% fewer violent offences and 26% fewer offences overall, whereas the rates of disciplinary incidents remained substantially unchanged for those receiving placebos.
This double blind, placebo-controlled, randomised trial, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry (2002) Vol. 181, pages 22-28 attracted an extremely favourable response from the academic community for the high standard of the methodology, as well as considerable press interest Click here to read the journal article.
In 2001, the charity entered into a collaborative research programme with Oxford University, where Bernard Gesch was seconded to become Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Physiology, a position he continues to hold in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics. Following years of development, Natural Justice facilitated a major new research project which started in January 2008 to replicate and refine the earlier work. Professor John Stein of Oxford is Principal Investigator and Bernard Gesch is Coordinator of this £1.5m study funded by the Wellcome Trust, the results of which will be available in due course.
In September 2009, SCIENCE Magazine published an article documenting this three prison study. The study is currently taking place in two prisons in England and one in Scotland. Read the PDF: The Theory? Diet Causes Violence. The Lab? Prison Prior to this study, the Associate Parliamentary Food and Health Forum launched a groundbreaking report on diet, mental health and behaviour on 30 January 2008. The charity was gratified to hear the inquiry’s chairman, Lord Rea, comment at the launch that the inquiry was inspired by the work of Natural Justice. In the report, the Parliamentarians emphasise that we should consider the impact of what we eat on our mental health, as well as our physical health. In particular, the inquiry report looks at the evidence that diet affects the behaviour and performance of school children, the behaviour of offenders and people suffering from depression. More detailed information is available on the Forum’s website at http://www.fhf.org.uk/inquiry and a press release summarising the key recommendations can be downloaded here.
Natural Justice has already provided a submission to the Inquiry into Alternatives to Prisons, chaired by Lord Coulsfield in 2003-2004. Click here for a copy of the submission.
The charity began to examine how the same rigorous methodology could be applied to learning issues, mental health and dementias. Last year we were asked to conduct a randomised, controlled trial in a large comprehensive school, where at the same time we are working with the school to develop a nutritional teaching module. This study, funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, is in progress. Staff and pupils have responded enthusiastically, and we look forward to publishing results when they become available.