MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
News Release issued by The Government News Network on 1 September 2008
Steps to further
toughen up the demanding physical work offenders carry out on
community payback were outlined today by Justice Minister David Hanson.
Courts will be able to hand out tougher and more intense
penalties for a range of offenders - including those in possession
of knives - who are ordered to carry out work such as picking up
litter, renovating community centres, clearing undergrowth and
graffiti for local communities.
Starting today (1 September) anyone convicted of a knife-related
offence who is unemployed and sentenced to the maximum 300 hours
of community payback from the courts will complete their sentence
in intensive blocks of up to five days a week. This will mean more
intensive labour for all those knife offenders who are not in work
across all 42 Probation Areas.
A pilot will also run to see if this sort of intense work could
be rolled out to all types of offenders given community payback.
West Yorkshire will trial a programme for all offenders receiving
200 hours of work from the courts doing this intensively in 6
weeks. This will represent a significant loss of liberty and free
time for many people with work taking place five days per week and
continued tough consequences for not turning up.
The measures follow the recent announcement made by the Prime
Minister that community payback for offenders would be tough,
visible and effective.
Mr Hanson also highlighted that more offenders are currently
'paying back' the community through work at weekends
when they expect to have free time, with 74% of community payback
programmes running on either Saturday or Sunday.
He said:
"Offenders sentenced to 'pay' for their crimes
within the community can already expect to work hard and lose much
of their free time. By introducing intensive five-days-a-week
payback for many knife crime offenders we are further toughening
these punishments. Initially the change will affect the small
number of knife crime offenders who are given the longest
community payback sentences instead of custody by magistrates, but
we are also announcing a pilot to assess the suitability and
success of extending this over time to a much wider range of offenders.
"It is important that the public can see and influence the
work that is being carried out by offenders in their
neighbourhoods. This is crucial to ensure that there is confidence
in community sentences.
"The Public can already suggest projects for offenders to
work on to their local probation office and we are intending to
set up community panels linked closely to local communities which
will further enable members of the public to propose work projects
for offenders in their local area."
Last year there were 55,771 completions of community payback
across England and Wales, providing over six million hours of free
labour for communities.
As well as providing a tough form of punishment for offenders and
a constructive form of payback to communities, tough community
sentences can be more effective than a short prison sentence in
terms of rehabilitating some offenders, turning them away from
crime and therefore giving greater protection to the public.
Recent statistics show that frequency of re-offending for
community sentences have fallen sharply by 13%. In March we
announced £40m to further support the probation service so that
magistrates have tough community sentences that will punish
offenders at their disposal.
Notes to Editors
1. The latest figures show that frequency of re-offending for
community sentences have fallen sharply by 13%. The re-offending
rate following a short custodial sentence is 59.7%. The
re-offending rate following a community sentences is 37.9%.
2. A Community Sentence can be made up of one or more of the
following 12 options: compulsory community payback, specific
activity - such as a community drug centre, supervision - daily or
weekly meetings with a probation officer, an accredited programme
to tackle issues such as anger management, prohibited activity,
curfew, exclusion from a place, activity at an attendance centre,
residence with an automatic curfew, mental health treatment, drug
rehabilitation and alcohol treatment. Sentences are constructed
to ensure the public's safety is paramount, the offender is
duly punished, but they are also given the opportunity to
rehabilitate and get help for the some of the root causes behind
their offending.
3. In June 2008, the Home Secretary outlined plans to focus a
programme of action on knife crime hotspots and announced an
initial investment of £2 million. This built on the success of the
Tackling Gangs Action Programme which ran from September 2007
until February 2008.
4. The ten areas taking part in the Tackling Knives Action
Programme are London, Essex, Lancashire, West Yorkshire,
Merseyside, the West Midlands, Greater Manchester,
Nottinghamshire, South Wales and Thames Valley.
5. In his July press conference the Prime Minister outlined the
government's plans to tackle knife crime. He said:
"Building on the recent Casey Review we are strengthening
community sentences in the country to make them tough, visible and
effective. Just as we are doing more to get criminals to make
reparation to the victims, it is only fair that they should pay
back to the communities." For further details please click
here: http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page16320
http://www.justice.gov.uk