Criminals put to work instead of going to prison; MP slams 50% rise in community sentences.Byline: MARTIN WILLIAMS Martin T. Williams (1924–1992) was born in Richmond, Virginia. He was a critic, specializing in jazz and American popular culture. He wrote for major jazz magazines, notably Down Beat, cofounded The Jazz Review COURTS are sending more and more criminals to do community service because prisons are "bursting at the seams". That's the opinion of politicians worried by a 50% rise in the number of offenders being sent on unpaid work activity. In the last 12 months 1,403 people have been ordered to do community service, compared to 943 in 2004/5. And criminals in North Wales North Wales (known in some archaic texts as Northgalis) is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales, bordered to the south by Mid Wales and to the east by England. were ordered to carry out 165,685 hours of punishment in the last year, up from 112,105 hours five years ago. The majority of those put on community service committed thefts and motoring crimes, though there has been a staggering increase in the number of violent offenders being placed on unpaid work activity, a continual rise from 318 people in 2004/5 to 496 in 2008/9. Clwyd West Clwyd West may refer to:
He added: "Whilst I'm all for restorative justice A philosophical framework and a series of programs for the criminal justice system that emphasize the need to repair the harm done to crime victims through a process of negotiation, mediation, victim empowerment, and Reparation. The U.S. , I am very concerned that the increasing trend towards community service as a sentence may simply be a result of the fact that our prisons are bursting at the seams. "It is alarming that despite the fall in offences such as burglary and theft in recent years - there seem to be more community sentences. I assume that most of these would have been given prison sentences in previous years, which is why we need more prison places in the UK." Mr Millar was backed by North Wales AM Mark Isherwood Mark Isherwood, born 1959, is a Conservative member of the National Assembly for Wales for the region of North Wales. He is the son of Liberal Democrat politician Rodney Isherwood. , who said: "This general upwards trend in community sentencing could be good or bad news dependent upon the impact on custodial sentences and reoffending rates. "Custodial sentences must be the option of first choice when an offender is a threat to others or a threat to themselves. Prison must deter and punish, but it must also rehabilitate. Only by tackling the causes of offending - be they addiction, educational Darren Millar AM failure, family breakdown, mental health problems or whatever - will we create reduced offending rates and safer communities." However, Vale of Clwyd MP Chris Ruane praised North Wales Probation Service for utilising offenders for the good of local communities, citing their help in Rhyl's Wales in Bloom bid as an example. He said: "The whole idea of community payback is a good one - it's visible and it's appreciated." North Wales Probation Area Chief Officer Carol Moore added: "Unpaid work is a punishment which people carry out in the community. "We have numerous examples of those benefits, ranging from cleaning up graffiti to environmental projects and carrying out repair and renovation work. "As part of that process we carry out assessments and would be signalling to a court if we were not able to manage the risk individual offenders pose to the community." martinwilliams@dailypost.co.uk |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion