Sandwell Safer 6 clears 10 tonnes of waste

By SWM Probation, October 26, 2011

Over 10 tonnes of waste and litter have been cleared from Sandwell’s streets and green spaces during the first four weeks of the Safer 6 campaign.

Offenders serving community service sentences – known as Community Payback - put in over 500 hours last week alone. Offenders on Community Payback are closely supervised by Staffordshire & West Midlands Probation Trust. In Smethwick last week, they carried out clean-up work in areas including Thimblemill Brook, Reginald Road, Beakes Road, Sherwood Road, Ford Street, the Windmill Youth Centre, Lonsdale Road, Oxford Road and Tiverton Close. They have now carried out over 2,400 hours of unpaid work since the start of the campaign on September 26. This equates to over £14,500 worth of labour had the work been paid for at minimum wage.

Also in week four of Safer 6, which had a special focus on Smethwick, council wardens and police seized alcohol 36 times from nuisance drinkers. Police made 14 drug seizures and wardens issued 14 fines for littering.

British Transport Police and Centro carried out patrols on the Metro tram network between The Hawthorns and Winson Green, giving out advice to commuters about gold thefts.

The council’s property intervention officers checked 293 empty private homes, to make sure they were properly secured.

The fire service visited 15 shops in Smethwick that sell fireworks, to remind retailers of their duties not to sell to children and to promote firework safety to their customers.

A joint operation between Sandwell Police and the Safer Travel Partnership saw five arrests and 20 vehicles seized for a range of offences. They used automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) equipment in the Grove Lane area to check vehicles and patrolled the bus route between Cape Hill and Oldbury.

The police, council neighbourhood manager and Sandwell Homes held a community awareness event at Bearwood Co-op, giving advice to local people.

Sandwell Youth Bus, run by the council’s young people’s services, was out at Londonderry playing fields, West Smethwick Park and Windmill Youth Centre.

Partners are tackling crime and anti-social behaviour across all six towns throughout the six-week Safer 6 campaign, with a special focus for a week on each town. This current week’s (October 24-30) is on Tipton.

Councillor Darren Cooper, Sandwell Council leader, said:

It’s great to see the council, police and all the partners working like this during Safer 6, a time of year when crime and anti-social behaviour can often rise with the darker nights and bonfire and fireworks season. There have been some excellent results, making our communities safer and cleaner.

Chief Inspector Bal Sidhu, from Sandwell Police, said:

Organisations work day in, day out throughout the year to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. We’re putting in extra efforts and providing additional reassurance at this time of year.

Councillor Roger Horton, Smethwick town lead member, said:

The Safer 6 campaign is very visual and is giving reassurance to people. It’s fantastic that each of the six towns is benefiting. We already do a lot of good work with all our partners in Smethwick to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour and this has been another top team effort.

More information on Safer 6 campaign at www.sandwell.gov.uk/safer6

Those taking part in this year’s Safer 6 campaign include:

• Sandwell Police
• Sandwell Council
• West Midlands Fire Service
• Staffordshire & West Midlands Probation Trust – Community Payback
• Sandwell Homes
• HM Revenue & Customs
• Centro
• British Transport Police
• Safer Travel Partnership
• Vosa (Vehicle & Operator Services Agency)

Community Payback, News, Sandwell | Community Payback, News, Sandwell

Lunch Club Celebrates 10th Anniversary

12 Oct 2011

A lunch club for the elderly staffed by Wigan’s Community Payback team has celebrated its 10th anniversary.

Offenders carrying out their community orders help prepare the food, serve and clear up at the weekly Trinity Church lunch.

Retired probation officer Alan Ireland launched the Club in 2001 and is delighted that it is still going strong.

Currently there are 35 members who attend regularly and enjoy a three course meal and social events every Wednesday at the Trinity United Reformed Church in Milton Grove Wigan.

Alan said: “It is an excellent event, we have lots of fun. For some of those who attend it is their main social event of the week.

“It is great for folk to meet up and enjoy themselves and we could not run the club without the support of Community Payback and over the years we have formed some good relationships with the people who staff it”.

While the age is mainly 60s to 90 all are welcome. After lunch there is usually bingo or dominoes.

Alan added “It is a good opportunity for our members to see that those on Community Payback are no different than our friends neighbours and families – they are so often just people who have had an unfortunate episode in their lives.

“A decade ago I realised there was a need for a lunch club in and around my church and I also knew that there was a need for good Community Payback projects.

“Our members are from Trinity, from several other churches in the area and from no church. All that matters is that people come to enjoy a hot meal and good company.”

Community Payback Supervisor Rita Souter added: “Offenders often learn a lot from their experience and they can tell that what they are doing is appreciated.

“They learn cooking skills, about the importance of being punctual and how to work as part of a team.

“The lunch club breaks down barriers that can exist between the young and the elderly.”

Anyone who is interested in joining the club should call Alan on 01942 831462.

Rowley Regis church “an oasis of peace and beauty” thanks to Community Payback

By SWM Probation, October 14, 2011

May I express to the Probation Trust the deep gratitude of St Giles Rowley Regis for the fine work that your ongoing work in our churchyard has achieved.

The exceptional leadership of the Community Payback supervisor, and the incredible work and attitude of those he’s been supervising, have transformed what was beginning to look like a jungle into an oasis of peace and beauty. What has been heart-warming has been the commitment of all involved, and the respectful and conscientious way in which a sensitive area has been restored to proper use. I hope everyone will feel that their work has made a real difference, and that we are extremely grateful, and delighted by how the project has been managed and the engagement and pleasantness of everyone giving help.

Hopefully the project will be completed, and the probation service has made a significant improvement on the facilities for Rowley and its community.

Thank you.

The Vicar of St Giles Rowley Regis

Great Wyrley church gives thanks to Community Payback

By SWM Probation, October 13, 2011

I have again been asked on behalf of St Mark’s DCC to write to you to express our thanks for all the hard work that has been carried out by the Community Payback team. The work has been undertaken within the grounds of St Mark’s Church and has again helped with the appearance to the grounds of the Church.

Keeping the Church looking tidy helps to welcome both visitors and regular worshippers to Church. The Community Payback team’s efforts have made a real difference to how the Church looks.

Yours sincerely,

Secretary to St Mark’s DCC, Great Wyrley, Walsall

Unemployed offenders face tougher work in the community

Plans to step up community penalties as an alternative to prison could include the possibility of hard manual labour

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
The Guardian, Wednesday 24 August 2011

Unemployed offenders face a full week of unpaid work, including the possibility hard manual labour, under plans to toughen community penalties as an alternative to prison.

Instructions will be issued to courts by the Ministry of Justice, urging them to make sure unemployed offenders sentenced to the "community payback" programme work a minimum of 28 hours over a four-day week. They will spend the fifth day looking for work or face losing their jobseekers' allowance.

The department had previously said that community payback schemes, previously known as community service, could be spread over 12 months, with some offenders doing as little as six hours a week unpaid work.

The more intensive scheme will also require offenders to start work within seven days of sentencing instead of the two weeks it currently takes following a court appearance. More than 100,000 offenders are given community sentences across England and Wales each year, with more than 8.8m hours of unpaid work completed annually. The scheme is run by the probation service and the public can nominate jobs to be undertaken by offenders.

A ministry spokesman said the work usually included improving public areas by picking up litter, cleaning graffiti, and maintaining parks and green spaces. But offenders can also be required to undertake hard labour such as working on a community farm.

Under the 2003 Criminal Justice Act, those who have responsibility for children or other dependents are exempt from the 28 hours a week requirement.

To read more, follow the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/aug/24/unemployed-offenders-tougher-work-community

Doing Community Payback

Community Payback - what it is

Doing unpaid work as part of a community sentence is known as ‘Community Payback’. It’s a way to pay back to the community for the damage a crime has caused.

Your offender manager discusses the type of work that’s best for you - and also where and when the work is.


Types of work done on Community Payback

Community Payback can involve work like:

removing graffiti
clearing overgrown areas - like pathways
clearing wasteland
decorating public places and buildings - for example, a community centre

You may work in a team which is managed by a Community Payback supervisor.

The work aims to help you learn new skills and get on better with people around you.

Where work is carried out

Community Payback work is carried out in your local area

It’s likely that the work is carried out in your local area. You must wear a high visibility orange vest so that people can see you’re being punished for your crime.

Members of the public can suggest Community Payback projects that would benefit their area.
To read more and suggest a project, follow the link: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/CrimeJusticeAndTheLaw/Sentencingprisonandprobation/Communitysentences/DG_196050

Only half of offenders on community orders made to do unpaid work

Only half of offenders handed community penalties are made to carry out unpaid work as part of their punishment, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor

Convicted criminals can be made to carry out physical work for the benefit of a local area as one of 12 requirements a court can place on a community order.

The work, known as Community Payback, can include gardening, removing graffiti, litter picking and clearing wasteland and is seen as a way of offenders giving something back to the communities they preyed on.

But over the last three years just 54 per cent of criminals handed community orders were made to carry out unpaid work.

It means tens of thousands of offenders who avoid prison every year also avoid being put to work in the community.

The figures last night further fuelled claims that the court orders are a “soft” punishment.

To read more of this article, click here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8653157/Only-half-of-offenders-on-community-orders-made-to-do-unpaid-work.html

Offenders scrub up for the royal wedding

By Tom Peck

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

In the cold, windswept tunnels beneath the royal parks they stand, in single file with mop and bucket, their heads bent, faces set in stony disconsolation. They are a 21st-century chain gang reluctantly returning the lustre to the shabbier corners of the royal wedding route. Over their blue boiler suits are DayGlo orange jackets with the words "Community Payback" emblazoned on the back, neatly offsetting their bright yellow marigolds.


"We set up this scheme because we wanted get the place sorted out and looking nice for the royal wedding," says Lisa Houslin, the Community Payback Scheme Manager in charge of the project. Over the next four weeks offenders with convictions ranging from driving offences to public disorder will clean the pedestrian tunnels beneath Hyde Park Corner, a key thoroughfare for the expected millions who will arrive from all corners of the globe to witness the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

"I don't want to be doing this," says Robert Hall, a 21-year-old from Ladbroke Grove in West London, currently 17 hours into his 100-hour sentence for theft and handling stolen goods. "Last week I was painting railings on the Mozart Estate, doing something that actually needs to be done, in a deprived area, doing something useful, making my estate look better."
Click here to read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/youth-offenders-scrub-up-for-the-royal-wedding-2263664.html

Napo warns of community payback scheme 'chaos'

Handing over the supervision of criminals to the private sector "is likely to lead to chaos", the probation union Napo has warned.

Published by BBC News Website 7 March 2011 Last updated at 01:17

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke is considering allowing private firms and organisations which help cut reoffending rates to make a profit.

But Napo said offenders were not a willing workforce and supervising and motivating them was a skilled task.

The government said it was looking at the "best options" to cut reoffending.

It wants to reduce the £4bn prison and probation budget by 20% over four years.

On Saturday, Ken Clarke outlined the government's new payment-by-results approach to the justice system, meaning the government would only pay providers if they reduced reoffending.

Click here to read full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12660015

Community payback supervisor scoops award

A community payback supervisor has scooped a justice award for his work with offenders.

Richard Ward from Avon and Somerset Probation Trust supervises offenders working on projects such as graffiti removal and fly-tipping clearance, amounting to over 5,000 hours of work a year.

He won the award for commitment and enthusiasm towards Community Payback, and for leading projects such as creating a Mobile Welfare Trailer, which allows offenders to use hot and cold running water and a toilet whilst working around Bristol.

Richard says: 'From my point of view this is the bread and butter work that you should be doing, which is responding to the public.'

Not a 'soft' option
After 10 years working with offenders, Richard stresses that the projects he oversees are far from a 'soft' option: 'I don't think anyone would say handling buckets of people's filth, rubbish and rotten food for seven hours a day is easy work.

'Some of the places we clean up are absolutely disgusting.

'But seeing the difference they can make helps instill a sense of moral responsibility in the offenders.

'And the feedback from the public is fantastic – we're amassing quite a collection of thank you letters.'
Click here to read full article: http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/announcement170211a.htm

Look how community service made a difference to these stairs in Irvine

A local Housing Officer enlisted the help of the North Ayrshire Community Service Team to paint and decorate the common entry and stairways in a range of Council houses. The end results have been highly praised by residents who have benefited from the work carried out by offenders.

Criminals learn carpentry as they pay their dues

Criminals have been carving out alternative careers for themselves by making benches, wendy houses and even lovespoons. Echo reporter HELEN TURNER visits a Wales Probation Trust carpentry workshop in Cardiff to find out more

LOVESPOONS, rocking horses and playhouses items you might expect to be hand-crafted by rustic craftspeople continuing a long-held family tradition.

But a visit to a Wales Probation Trust carpentry workshop in Cardiff has revealed the makers are often convicted criminals carrying out their community sentences.

Drama props, climbing frames and wendy houses are just some of the facilities which can be made according to the demand and specification of a school, nursery, community project or faith group.

Because the work is unpaid and often uses recycled timber, costs are kept to a minimum, allowing offenders to repay the community for their crimes.

For a decade the workshop in Lewis Street, Riverside, has been giving offenders the opportunity to learn skills and simultaneously acquire Open College Network (OCN) certificates taught across the UK, from painting and decorating to lovespoon making.

Around 2,500 offenders annually attend the workshop, which is unique in Wales for its strong manufacturing basis, and is in partnership with YMCA Community College.

Steve Powell, workshop supervisor, said: For some offenders this is the first formal qualification they have ever got.

If they come out of school and have had nothing, these are seen as the route back to education.

Vulnerable offenders or those with childcare responsibilities may be selected for the workshop, instead of doing community service outdoors and among the public.



Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonline/cardiff-news/2011/02/04/criminals-learn-carpentry-as-they-pay-their-dues-91466-28110569/#ixzz1DM9SKd2h

Reducing Reoffending in Scotland - projects & initiatives

Criminal Justice Social Work and Community Service teams across Scotland are responsible for ensuring offenders complete all aspects of their community sentence imposed by the Courts.

The punishment could include carrying out hours of unpaid manual work in the community, supervision, alcohol, drug or behavioural interventions.

Some of the unpaid manual work being carried out by offenders across Scotland include:

Clearing pathways of snow or ice
Building eco-plant areas for school children
Repainting community centres or churches
Cleaning beaches
Growing vegetables and distributing the produce to care homes and local charities.
Unpaid manual work is a punishment for the offender and benefit to the community.

Find out more: Community Payback

In this section:

Community service projects
Case studies
Picture gallery
Videos
For full details, click here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/public-safety/offender-management/projects/Q/editmode/on/forceupdate/on

Swift justice for criminals

Kenny MacAskill Wants offenders to be seen to be repaying the communities they have harmed.


Robbie Dinwoodie Chief Scottish Political Correspondent

Share 31 Jan 2011

Offenders sentenced to community service are to find themselves serving on work squads within hours of standing in the dock.

A pilot scheme at Glasgow Sheriff Court to establish a “one-stop shop” will mean community service and social work staff being housed in the court building or in nearby offices.

Offenders can then be transferred immediately from the dock to be assessed, then taken directly to their first community payback work-squad placement.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill announced the pilot scheme funded by the Scottish Government, saying: “Punishment should be tough and justice should be immediate.”

Click here to read full article http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/swift-justice-for-criminals-1.1082656

Students and offenders recruited to keep towns tidy

Offenders sentenced to do community payback are among groups cleaning up public areas in the Tidy Towns scheme.

Overgrown land around Llannor Community Centre, near Pwllheli, is being cleared thanks to a Gwynedd Council Tidy Towns grant.

The money pays for tools and materials, while the labour is provided by the probation service and local volunteers.

Meanwhile, students from Coleg Menai have been working to improve the environment in and around Porthmadog.
Click here to see full article:http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/northwestwales/hi/front_page/newsid_9379000/9379769.stm

Putting the bad guys to work on good deeds in Bethnal Green

IT MIGHT be a sunny day, but standing around in the garden at St Peter’s Church in Bethnal Green, the cold really starts to get into your bones.

For six gardeners clad in tough outdoor gear, gloves and the tell-tale Community Payback orange waistcoats, the day is not about standing idly admiring the garden.

Instead they are notching up six-and-a-half hours of their community service sentence under the watchful eye of Probation Service project supervisor Gaby Barzilar.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/putting_the_bad_guys_to_work_on_good_deeds_in_bethnal_green_1_784856
Contact details of London Probation are wrong, or at least they was not obtainable when i tried them.

Can community sentences replace jail?

This was published in August 2010 but i think it's still relevant.

With the prison population rising, along with the cost of keeping people locked up, ministers have indicated they want to see fewer people serving short jail terms. But are community sentences a real alternative?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10725163