THE PUBLIC HAVE HAD THEIR SAY AND CRIMINALS MUST PAYBACK IN BASFORD

A playing field in Basford will be transformed after coming top in a vote for areas where offenders on Community Payback should work.

Work on the Mill Street Playing Fields project in Basford began on Thursday the 18th June, with offenders clearing the site of rubbish and litter. They will also create a garden area, and renovate the mill stream.

The Mill Street site beat off competition from 4 other areas across the City, including projects in the Forest Recreation Ground, The Meadows, St Ann's and Broxtowe Country Park. Residents from communities voted for their favourite on the national Justice Seen, Justice Done Community Payback website.

The three week vote saw a total of 18,000 votes from all over the country to raise awareness of Community Payback as a tough punishment for criminals, following the launch of branded high visibility orange jackets that offenders must now wear.

All the other sites will also be visited over the coming months.

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

Every year over 55,000 criminals receive Community Payback – carrying out over six million hours of physical work on behalf of their communities to payback for their crimes. A poll of 1,000 people conducted by MORI in November 2008 found that more needed to be done to raise awareness of the scheme.

Allan Breeton, Nottingham City Neighbourhood Crime and Justice Co-ordinator, said:

"It's about the law-abiding majority seeing something done on their behalf.

I'm getting the message out in the community saying 'there's some free labour here'. They are supervised and some involved in Community Payback can be skilled labourers, such as painters and decorators."

Nottinghamshire Probation Area’s Chief Officer Jane Geraghty said:

"We are delighted with the response to Community Payback campaign. Giving people the opportunity to have their opinion heard is an essential part of the justice process and with a total of 535 votes received, it shows Nottingham’s public are keen to influence where justice is carried out.

All five Nottingham projects are very deserving and the work carried out by offenders at each of them will be very visible and benefit large sections of the local community."

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said:

"It is vital that the public see that justice is being done and Community Payback is a crucial part of that. By making it possible for the public to have their say on which projects offenders should carry out in their communities, we are giving the law-abiding majority a voice, which in turn helps build their confidence in the criminal justice system. The key to ongoing success is ensuring that the public continue to be aware of Community Payback and understand how they can get involved in seeing justice being done."

Government Crime and Justice Adviser Louise Casey said:

"The people in Nottingham want to know that criminals are being made to pay back for their crimes. Community Payback schemes make this a reality and, very importantly, they also now give the public a say in what criminals must actually do to serve their punishment and pay back to local communities.

Hopefully this will give local people confidence that the system is on their side and that punishment can be tough - then they might be more likely to report crimes and help the police bring more offenders to justice. I’m looking forward to seeing the project in Basford completed so that it will be of real benefit to the community."

Courts are now able to hand out tougher and more intense penalties for a range of crimes to offenders who are ordered to carry out work in the community.