Conservative Conference 2010: Sentences could be cut if offenders work hard on community schemes, says youth justice minister
Neil Puffett
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Young offenders could have their community sentences cut if they are deemed to be working hard while completing an order, youth justice minister Crispin Blunt has suggested.
Speaking at a Conservative conference fringe event on community alternatives to custody for young people, staged by the Transition to Adulthood Alliance, Blunt said more effective community punishments need to be identified.
Describing community payback schemes as a "wasted opportunity", he stressed the importance of identifying new models in order to give the public confidence in their effectiveness.
"It goes into the whole issue of leadership," he said. "If a scheme is effectively led and administered, people will respond.
"If you get a scheme where leaders say that they [the offender] have been working hard and have done more than the minimum work, perhaps you are in a position to knock something off the sentence," he said.
Joyce Moseley, chief executive of Catch22, agreed that community payback schemes must change. "They need to be seen as an integral part of learning skills and doing things in a very professional way," she said.
"A lot could be done with it. It needs to be more than painting the scout hut for the sixth time."
Calling on the sector to help with the identification of effective models, Blunt said they must feature four key elements: punishment, restoration to the victim, public protection and rehabilitation.
Blunt went on to say that he has been encouraged by the attitude of colleagues in other departments toward tackling the causes of offending.
"There is a real determination by health ministers to address offender mental health in a more effective way than we have done before," he said.
"We have got a lot of people not receiving the treatment they quite obviously need."