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Monday, March 30, 2009

Community punishment for offenders to go to the vote

Community punishment for offenders to go to the vote

Public to be given chance to vote on work done by criminals on community punishment projects

By Alan Travis, Home Affairs Editor, The Guardian

A new scheme which claims to give the public the right to vote on what physical work should be carried out in communities by offenders is to be launched today.

The scheme, launched by the justice secretary, Jack Straw, and home secretary, Jacqui Smith, will allow the public to choose via a government website which of five local projects should be started first.

About 55,000 "community payback" projects, including clearing up litter, cleaning graffiti and redecorating community centres, were completed last year with more than 6m hours of unpaid work ordered by the courts.

3 comments:

James Higham said...

Again - your feelings on this?

Barnacle Bill said...

Do we also get to vote who should get community punishment?
I think in the present climate actual offenders might find themselves pushed to the back of the queue by all our politicians!

jailhouselawyer said...

James: I think my views are well documented on this blog and elsewhere on the internet.

BB: I was thinking something similar myself. There are a lot of MPs who represent the Snoutsinthetrough constituency.