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Community penalties
09/12/2008
Tough community sentences that make offenders pay back to society will help tackle reoffending and build a safer Scotland, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said today.
Mr MacAskill was speaking as he visited a workshop in Dunfermline where offenders carry out unpaid work. This can either be as an additional requirement of a Probation Order - a third of probation orders now contain such a condition - or under a Community Service Order (CSO).
New figures for 2007-08 show a 22 per cent rise in the number of Probation Orders where courts imposed an added requirement for unpaid work.
Mr MacAskill said:
"We're working with criminal justice professionals and other local partners to deliver a coherent penal system that tackles both the unacceptably high reoffending rates and the ever-rising prisoner population which we inherited.
"Part of that requires swift, tough and visible community sentences - which we know see fewer offenders reconvicted after two years than those given short spells in prison custody.
"Serious, dangerous criminals should quite rightly expect to be sentenced to lengthy jail terms and we're investing record sums in the prison estate, including building three new jails.
"But many lesser offenders could be paying back communities through the sweat of their brow rather than getting free bed and board at taxpayers' expense.
"I'm pleased the courts are imposing more community sentences, particularly requiring those placed on probation to do unpaid work to benefit communities. This latter disposal, enabling both payback and rehabilitation of the offender, provides the flexible approach recommended in the independent Prisons Commission's report - to which we will be responding very shortly.
"Community sentences must start promptly, linking offence and penalty. They should be enforced robustly and breaches dealt with effectively - whether continuing with the order or a sterner alternative put in place.
"I recently announced extra funds for local Community Justice Authorities to allow local authorities within their areas to recruit more staff and ensure offenders start paying back more quickly. We're also funding three CJAs, including Fife & Forth Valley, to pilot new ways to allow the public to learn how offenders pay back communities.
"Robust, meaningful community penalties can help equip lower level offenders to make a meaningful contribution to society. They can avoid the loss of links to family, housing and employment that even short prison terms can lead to and that can make offenders more likely to fall into old ways and career criminality.
"This Government is determined to ensure that Scotland has a coherent penal policy for the long term - one that protects the public, reduces reoffending and thereby offending, and so builds safer, stronger communities for all our people."
Bill Kinnear, Service Manager, Fife Council Criminal Justice Service said:
"Community Service requires offenders to carry out work designed to provide direct benefit to the community as a whole. Projects can range from individual placements, providing assistance to the elderly or the disabled, to group work such as refurbishment projects.
"We have had some real successes in Fife, from effective community clean-up projects to the creation of a sensory garden for children with disabilities.
"Community Service is not a soft option. The work is intended to be challenging, demanding, providing a direct and visible benefit to the community with offenders being closely supervised at all times.
"I am pleased to say that Fife has been following the national trends with an increase in the number of community orders being successfully completed."
Councillor Margaret Kennedy, Convenor of the Fife and Forth Valley CJA and Vice-Chair of Fife Council's Police, Fire and Safety Committee said:
"The Community Service by Offenders scheme in Fife has provided an excellent opportunity for communities to benefit from the projects that offenders have been involved in.
"The community clean-up programmes have shown that 'payback' is beneficial to those living in the area and to the offenders themselves.
"It is not a soft option but the scheme gives offenders a structured framework within which to work, equips them with skills to help them back into employment and a stronger work ethic."
The Criminal Justice Social Work Bulletin, published today, showed a 4.5 per cent increase in the use of CSOs in Scotland, with a 5 per cent rise in the number of these community sentences successfully completed.
The number of probation orders increased by 4 per cent including a 22 per cent increase in the use of probation with a condition of unpaid work. Supervised Attendance Orders, which are used primarily with fine defaulters increased by 46 per cent over the previous year.
The Dunfermline Workshop has facilities for offenders to make and supply various items of craft work, bird feeders & nesting boxes, garden furniture, planters, chess sets, etc to local charity shops, voluntary groups and others. On-going projects also include repairing and refurbishing public benches for local community councils, refurbishing household and garden furniture for residential care units, community centres and homeless units. alongside litter picking, garden maintenance, painting and decorating.