Grayling, the 'tough justice secretary', 'spices up' Clarke's community punishment reforms

A key crime and courts bill stating proposals to reform community punishment by Ken Clarke, has been dismissed by justice secretary Chris Grayling. Grayling plans to ’spice up’ the bill, revealing his new approach on Tuesday, claiming he wants to be the ‘tough justice secretary’ by imposing more punitive community sentences. He believes “more competition, more outsourcing and more payment by results” is the way forward. Probation sources write that Gray has dismissed Clarke’s proposal for community sentences as he does not want them to be an alternative to custody. The 220,000 offenders, that receive community sentences every year, could be subject to 24-hours tagging, satellite tracking and the seizing and selling of their assets and property, some of which were under consideration already. He has also postponed the legislation that is essential in setting up the new national crime agency. This move comes about as NAPO, the probation union, fight to stop the privatization of the probation, stating this would result in poorer protection of the public due to staff cuts in training and fewer staff overall. A private company already handle the supervision of low and medium risk offenders. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said this move was to bring about innovation through competition, or is this just quality and effectiveness lost to ideology?

Making ex-offenders pay, ex-offenders pay back society through conservation work

Offenders supervised by Northumbria Probation Trust took on vital conservation work in a national park.

The 12 offenders worked for a week at Snowdonia doing construction work with the National Trust and Charity Mobex North East. They also built dams to help re-establish the wetland, improve vegetation for wildlife and stop erosion.

During the week the offenders improved their communication skills, increased their self esteem while also paying something back to society by helping with this important conservation work.

Nick Hall, acting chief executive for Northumbria Probation Trust said: 'I am very impressed with the work the offenders completed and the impact this has had on them.

'I had met some of the group on a previous occasion and was amazed at the transformation in them. The conservation work has helped them to believe in themselves and realise that they can achieve other things in life without offending.'

The offenders who took part in the conservation work were subject to licence supervision on release from prison and living in Approved Premises in Northumbria.


First published on  http://justice.gov.uk/