Breach "Working Together" Workshop
The vast majority of offenders serving community penalties complete them without any problems. But a small minority of lawbreakers breach their non-custodial sentences.
To address this problem the Cambridgeshire Criminal Justice Board organised a special conference for justice staff dealing with the enforcement of community penalty breaches.
The “Working Together” workshop in Hartford on 9 May 2008 also gave practitioners a chance to network and get to know their colleagues in other agencies.
The workshop was chaired by Stephen Reyes, a trainer for Her Majesty’s Courts Service in Cambridgeshire and a court clerk at Cambridgeshire Magistrates’ Courts.
It’s important for justice staff to understand the processes involved in dealing with community penalty breaches so they can see how the system works as a whole. That way they can establish the best ways of working together.
The workshop gave staff a chance to get to know each other and understand the roles that other agencies played in dealing with breaches, Mr Reyes said.
“We wanted to identify where things were going wrong and find solutions so that we could deliver a better service to the community we serve.”
Those attending included representatives from the police, probation, courts, electronic tagging companies and youth offending teams. Magistrates and defence lawyers also took part.
The first conference of its kind in Cambridgeshire, the event was a great success with over 40 people attending.
Stephen Reyes introduces the day's themes.
Stephen talks about the processes involved in dealing with community penalty breaches.
Cambridgeshire Criminal Justice Board manager Julian Eales, left, chats with
Courts Team manager Mick Walker, of the Probation Service.
Caroline Banks, the Board's performance manager, organised the workshop.
Those attending got to split off into groups to talk about their roles
and discuss issues surrounding community penalty breaches.