Earlier this week the office of Criminal Justice Inspection (CJI) published a report into the treatment of victims and witnesses in our justice system.
This is not a stand alone report and should be looked at alongside the excellent review carried out by Sir John Gillen, published in May 2019, into the way sexual abuse and rape is dealt with by the justice system in Northern Ireland.
For most people, how the police and courts work, how defendants and complainants are dealt with, the procedure and language used, is an alien process that has little relevance to their day to day lives,
That is until they find themselves, or someone they love, involved in the justice system.
Then it can be a maze of confusion and frustration, a slow and cumbersome process that is neither efficient, fit for purpose nor victim centred.
In some cases the process can be as damaging, as traumatic and as bruising as the crime itself.
The CJI report published this week makes 12 operational recommendations, four of those apply to the Public Prosecution Service and five the the PSNI, with one joint recommendation for both PPS and police.
The other two are in relation to courts service and the probation board.
The first contact most victims will have with the justice system is when they report a crime. That means contact starts usually with a police call handler.
You'd wonder how that could mess up, but it sometimes does.
Call handlers who are often not properly trained to understand how protective orders work, who don't look at the call as part of a wider campaign of criminality or who fail to recognise the distress of the caller and ask unnecessary questions, resulting in a victim having to tell a stranger - with no role other than to dispatch an officer - intimate details of their lives.
Details that will have to then be repeated again and again.
The report concentrates heavily on an already in place Victim Charter and Witness Charter stating it should not just be "glossy leaflets, posters on a wall or website pages".
"They should be statements of intent that result in action and an ethos of authentic care across quality services in our criminal justice system.
"Victims and witnesses need to know about and understand them, they should be assured about how they are going to be supported and informed".
Sounds great only until I read the report published on Tuesday I'd never heard of a Victim Charter.
I asked a few people who had also been through the justice system, they looked at me as if I'd asked had they ever seen a Yeti, so I can assure you that's currently not working.
We had three years of little progress within our justice system due to the assembly collapse.
There is now a very real opportunity to create a better, fairer system of justice.
Streamlining the current outdated system is something that justice minister Naomi Long has said she will prioritise during her term, and that's a huge in-tray for any politician to deal with.
Creating a better and fairer system does not mean raising expectations of complainants in relation to outcomes, not all cases will result in a conviction.
It doesn't even mean that every crime reported needs to end up in the court system.
Northern Ireland needs also to look to other jurisdictions in terms of restorative practices and approach to non violent crimes.
This is especially important when dealing with youth crime when there is a very real but small window of opportunity to turn a child's life around before it's too late.
When you enter into the judicial system as a victim of crime you become nothing more than a witness for the prosecution.
And as such the information victims receive in terms of court appearances, bail hearings and release conditions will be limited. This can be stressful, frustrating but also leave people unaware of their rights.
Single points of contact for victims of persistent crime, an advocacy worker to explain how the prosecution service and court system works and keep witnesses up to date with proceedings are all simple changes that could be made quickly.
Swifter justice so people aren't left waiting lengthy periods of time for cases to reach trial, which is a more difficult, historically challenging aspect of our justice system.
Caring for child victims of crime in the court system with proper care and compassion and safeguarding to ensure they are not further damaged by the process should always be a priority.
The CJI report is worth reading but unless implemented it becomes just another pile of paper, words that sound good but are never put into practice.
It is up to all those involved in the current justice system, much of it a hangover from the past, to play their part in future proofing it for a better, fairer and more open system of dealing with crime and injustice.
