FIRST BIRTHDAY FOR OFFENDER COMMUNITY PAYBACK JACKETS IN LANCASHIRE
01 Dec 2009
High-visibility orange jackets for offenders to wear on Community Payback sentences have reached their one year anniversary in Lancashire today.
The jackets, with ‘Community Payback’ branding, are being worn by around 1000 offenders a month at over 80 projects that are visible to the public in Lancashire. This helps the public recognise offenders undertaking work in their community.
The success of the jackets is clear. The public have had a chance to have their say on the projects offenders carry out and can now see the work done to repay communities. Findings from two surveys carried out after the introductions of the jackets show that public awareness of the sentence has increased from 49 per cent in November last year to 74 per cent in April. Justice is being seen to be done.
Geri Byrne-Thompson, Area Director for Community Payback, said:
“The high-visibility jackets have been a great boost to public confidence as local residents can now recognise offenders doing work in their area. All offenders on-site accept and now wear them as part of their Community Payback orders.”
Justice Minister Claire Ward said:
“These jackets have exceeded expectations in their first year. The public wanted to see this happen and have an absolute right to know what punishments offenders are carrying out in the community.
The roll out of these jackets stemmed from the review of 'Engaging communities in fighting crime' published by Louise Casey in June last year.
Courts are now able to hand out tougher and more intense penalties for a range of offenders who are ordered to carry out work such as picking up litter, renovating community centres, clearing undergrowth and cleaning up graffiti for local communities.
Community Payback high-visibility jackets are worn at projects visible to the public. Last year (2008/09) offenders completed over 225,000 hours of Community Payback work in Lancashire. This work was valued at over £1.5 million (minimum wage equivalent).
Anyone can nominate a project for offenders to complete.
