Community Service
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When someone is found guilty of a crime one option which the Judge has is to impose a Community Service Order. An offender sentenced to community service has to carry out between 80 and 240 hours of unpaid work of benefit to the community. Community service placements are organised and supervised by local authority criminal justice social work staff. During the year 2006-07, courts in South West Scotland imposed 753 Community Service Orders. Community service is one of the best understood penalties however this is a common perception that it is a ‘soft option’ especially when compared to prison. However community service is more effective in reducing reoffending. 64% of offenders given a custodial sentence were reconvicted within two year of their release. This compares with to 45% of offenders given a community service order. Community Service Visibility ProjectSouth West Scotland CJA has been awarded £20,000 by the Scottish Government to run a six month pilot project, The project aims to increase the visibility and public awareness of community service as an effective way of dealing with offenders which puts something of value back into the community.We have worked with colleagues in Community Planning Partnerships and local authority communications teams along with criminal justice social work managers to develop and carry out our project. What are we gong to do?The pilot project will run for six months from September 2008 and we will be reporting our initial progress in December 2008 and March 2009.We want to better inform the public about community service and to change their perceptions of it. Advertising in local newspapers and on local radio will help us to do this. Community Service offers benefits to local communities. We will put plaques at suitable sites so that people know that offenders on community services did this work. We are carrying out surveys to know what people think of Community Service. We will also give people a chance to vote for future community service projects. |
