New community disposal piloted from today
4 Apr 05
Community reparation orders a new option for antisocial offenders
A pilot scheme to make offenders convicted of antisocial crimes do unpaid community work in reparation begins today.
Community reparation orders, introduced under the Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Act, are now available to courts in Inverness, Inverclyde and (from later this month) Dundee in summary cases. Offenders can be required to carry out between 10 and 100 hours of work.
The pilots will run for two years and will be continually evaluated to inform the decision on whether to make the orders more widely available.
Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson said: "All the evidence suggests that punishment of this type is more likely to have an impact on reoffending."