Time and punishment: a comparison of UK and US time bank use in criminal justice systems

Time banking, a form of community currency facilitating time-based exchanges, developed in the United States during the 1980s before transferring to the United Kingdom in the late 1990s. Whilst now operating in over 30 countries, this paper explores the US–UK link, focusing on time bank practices within criminal justice. Examining time bank theory and the UK/US policy contexts, this paper provides an account of the Time Dollar Youth Court and the UK time bank prisons initiative, to facilitate a discussion of policy transfer and lesson drawing. Such an approach provides a fresh insight into time bank development, opening up a previously unexplored aspect of time bank policy experimentation.