Payback time for criminals (From St Helens Star)

Payback time for criminals

12:00pm Friday 10th July 2009

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‘ORDINARY’ people are sick to the back teeth of listening about the human rights of people who break the law. If you break the law you take the consequences – end of story.

That was the tough message from crime tsar Louise Casey who was in St Helens to see for herself some crimebusting projects in action, including the Community Payback sceme.

The Government’s crime and justice adviser, who has compiled a special review entitled ‘Engaging Communities in Fighting Crime’ has been in town looking at community work carried out by offenders.

During the review, more than 10,000 people living across the country were consulted and their views turned into a series of recommendations.

St Helens was selected as a pioneer area at the start of the year to implement these recommendations.

Some proposals revolved around Community Payback performed by offenders as a result of a court order.

Last November, high visibility orange jackets were introduced by Louise Casey to be worn by offenders on the Payback schemes raising the profile of the scheme.

She visited Moss Lodge in Parr which has been a Community Payback site for more than 12 months.

Here offenders are transforming a former haulage yard into a recycling site for flowers collected from St Helens cemeteries.

The work is undertaken through a unique funding arrangement whereby two Probation supervisors are funded annually by St Helens Council.

Louise Casey said: “Criminals face far tougher payback stints in a crackdown on community sentences. They will be forced to work in rain, hail or snow.”

And she says the public will be left to decide what work offenders should do if they are spared jail. People will be offered a choice of local clean-up projects to improve ‘grot spots’ covered with graffiti or litter.

Councillor Teresa Sims, Executive Member for Safer Communities at St Helens Council says: “Community Payback operations on Merseyside are amongst the best in the country, making a visible and lasting difference to the people of this area.

“In the last year alone, offenders saved the people of Merseyside over £1m in unpaid labour, and continue to have a valuable impact on local communities. This underlines the importance of working with partners to achieve excellent results to the benefit of local communities.”

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