February 2010

THE VOICE 2009/10 NOW AVAILABLE!

The Lancashire Criminal Justice Board's new newsletter is now available, not only does it give you the latest news and achievements for the Board but you also have the chance to win yourself one of two iPod nano's.

The Voice 2009/10 

February 2010

COMMUNITY PAYBACK SUCCESS: CALL FOR RESIDENTS IN LANCASHIRE TO IDENTIFY MORE WORK FOR OFFENDERS 

Local residents are being asked to nominate further ideas for Community Payback projects following the success of recent voting that formed part of the Government’s ‘Justice Seen Justice Done’ campaign.
Over 1000 people voted last summer for what Community Payback they wanted to see offenders in Lancashire carry out.

The three week vote via the directgov website was to raise awareness of Community Payback, run by Lancashire Probation Trust, as a tough punishment for criminals and to give people a chance to have a say on what projects they would like to see worked on for the benefit of the local area. This followed the launch of branded high visibility orange jackets that offenders on Community Payback must now wear.

This latest phase of the campaign urges communities to identify other projects in their neighbourhoods by going to the directgov website: http://communitypayback.direct.gov.uk/.

Area Director, Geri Byrne-Thompson said: “When the public votes for the areas they want to see being cleaned up, we know Community Payback is doing what it is designed to do. We are capable of working on a wide variety of not-for-profit projects and are always looking for new ways for offenders to do work of benefit to the community.”

The roll-out of visible Community Payback across England and Wales is built on a recommendation from the Government’s Crime and Justice Adviser Louise Casey’s review, 'Engaging Communities in Fighting Crime', outlining the importance of justice being visible. It seeks to improve public confidence in Community Payback as a punishment so that if people see real, tough consequences for breaking the law, they will be more likely to come forward to report crime, give evidence in court and support their neighbours to do the same.

Last year over 2500 offenders were sentenced to Community Payback in Lancashire and nearly 225,000 hours of physical work were undertaken on behalf of their communities to pay back for their crimes.
In the initial wave of the Justice Seen Justice Done campaign, residents in Lancashire voted for offenders to work on three different projects in separate areas of the county: Moor Park, Preston; Olive Lane, Blackburn and Ibbison Court, Blackpool.

To suggest projects in Lancashire click the link below,
 

Nominate a Community Payback project here

February 2010

POLICE AND CPS HAIL OPERATION SKUA SUCCESS

LANCASHIRE Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have hailed the success of a Lancashire wide operation aimed at targeting those involved in the unlawful production of cannabis.

In an operation led by the constabulary's Serious and Organised Crime Unit and assisted by specialist operations, in late 2008, officers targeted retail premises in Blackpool, Preston, Darwen, Burnley and Walton le Dale. More ....

February 2010

QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE FIGURES FOR THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM PUBLISHED

The latest quarterly area performance figures for the Criminal Justice System are published today.
The provisional figures are for the quarter to September 2009 and covering England and Wales,  a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said:

“The Government is committed to creating a criminal justice system that is effective in bringing offenders to justice and ensure victims of crime have the support they need. The Criminal Justice System performance figures help drive forward our progress and inform future change.

“We will always strive to provide the public with a joined-up criminal justice system, having all agencies work together to tackle crime, support victims and witnesses, protect the public and reduce re-offending.”
 

More ....

January 2010
 

OFFENDERS & POLICE “MUCK IN” TO HELP PRESTON CHARITY
 

Lancashire Probation Trust has teamed up with Lancashire Constabulary’s mounted unit to do some recycling with a difference. Offenders on Community Payback are using poo provided by police horses as manure to help establish a vegetable garden at Preston charity Deafway.

The offenders have cleared a patch of very overgrown land over the past six months to make way for the garden to be established. The horse manure will provide nutrients for the soil to help the plants to grow. Now it is almost finished, the residents of Deafway – a charity that supports Deaf adults – will be planting and maintaining the garden as part of their activities programme.

Lancashire Probation’s Community Payback Practice Manager Sandra Wilson said:
“Offenders on Community Payback do a lot of work to help charities but we’ve never done anything quite this unusual – or smelly – before! It is a really worthwhile project for the offenders to work though as the resulting garden will help the charity provide a therapeutic pastime for the residents at the centre.

“Community Payback is just one of the sentences that can be made as part of a Community Order but it’s also the most visible and the one which benefits local communities the most.”

Mark Tierney, Activities Coordinator for Deafway said: “Having the offenders on site to prepare the garden has been hugely beneficial – our residents were not capable of completing the manual work needed so without community payback it wouldn’t have been completed. The results are fantastic; the residents will be working with a gardener to grow vegetables that they’ll also get to eat when they are provided to the centre’s kitchen.”

Sergeant Christine Driver from Lancashire Constabulary’s Mounted Branch said, “We are happy to help and support the Lancashire Probation Service for the Community Payback scheme. We have 18 horses all of which produce their fair share of muck and we normally have to pay to have this removed so we are more than happy to let them take it away.”

The project is just one of many undertaken by offenders working as part of their court punishment on Community Payback. Last year, a total of over 40,000 hours were worked across Preston and Leyland by offenders unpaid for the benefit of local people and neighbourhoods. That’s an equivalent value of almost £¼ million at basic wage.

Anyone can suggest work projects for offenders to do - apply online at www.lancashireprobation.co.uk . All work schemes must be for public or charity/ non-profit community benefit.
 

January 2010
 

STREET PASTOR AWARENESS SESSIONS
 

Magistrates and staff at Preston have been helping Lancashire Street Pastors to understand the court process and giving them an insight into the support available for victims and witnesses.
 

The Street Pastor initiative is an interdenominational, church response to the problems of urban society. It was established in 1993 and operates in many of the cities in the UK. Pastors patrol the streets in key volatile areas to befriend drunken or vulnerable partygoers and defuse hostile situations. They are armed with useful items such as flip-flops, space blankets, sharps boxes and water and go out on Friday/Saturday nights from 9.00pm until the early hours.

There is a project in Preston City Centre with plans in place to extend the scheme to other towns in the county. Volunteers are trained before they go out onto the streets and the more information they have about issues that may affect communities then the better equipped they are to offer support.

There have been two awareness sessions at Preston Magistrates Courts and the Pastors have seen the courtrooms, the cells and witness facilities. They have heard about the special measures that can help vulnerable and intimidated victims and witnesses give evidence and they have participated in sentencing exercises to help them understand the factors that are taken into consideration and the guidelines that must be followed in deciding upon a sentence.

The magistrates and the Pastors have welcomed this initiative and the sessions have been so successful that further events have been planned for new Pastors.
 

October 2009
 

LANCASHIRE SHINES AT THE NATIONAL JUSTICE AWARDS BY SCOOPING TWO PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS
 

LANCASHIRE is celebrating the success of winning two top justice awards at the national Justice Awards ceremony 2009. Jason Nice picked up the Volunteer of the Year award and the NACRO Centre for Restorative Justice / Preston Peer Panels team won the award for Tackling Youth Crime. More ...