Community sentencing revamp on the cards

MacAskill announces proposals to cut reoffending rates

News, 27 November 2007

More minor offenders are to be sentenced to community service or probation orders to cut the prison population, the Scottish Government announced today.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill is bringing in the measures in a bid to reduce reoffending rates, which are higher among those who are jailed for less than six months than offenders who are given non-custodial sentences.

Announcing the outcome of the Scottish Government's review of community penalties, Mr MacAskill said that punishment should include reparation whenever possible, providing some form of positive payback from offenders to the community they have damaged.

Mr MacAskill said minor offenders would still pay for their crimes, but that community penalties would be “effective, immediate, visible, flexible and relevant”.

Action points

The government's action plan for community penalties will:

develop a single reparative community penalty, combining the best aspects of community service, supervised attendance orders and community reparation orders;
require service providers to consult with local people on the type of reparative work that should be carried out;
make community service orders available in all levels of criminal court in Scotland;
propose legal changes for payback to be carried out more quickly – within six months of their imposition rather than the current 12;
allow, for the first time, community service to include an element of activity other than unpaid work, such as debt awareness training, or support to help move an offender into employment;
pilot an extension of the drug treatment and testing order approach to a wider range of offenders, and assess whether that extension should be rolled-out more widely.

Of those who receive jail sentences of six months or less, 75% currently reoffend within two years, compared to 39% of those who receive community sentences.

An independent Prison Commission set up by the Justice Secretary is already looking more widely at the purpose of prison, and is due to report back next June.

Range of penalties

The final sentencing decision in individual cases will continue to rest with judges, but Mr MacAskill said he hoped that the proposals outlined would send out a strong signal that community penalties should be used more often.

Mr MacAskill said: “I am convinced that greater use should be made of community penalties. This review provides strong evidence that [community penalties] can be more effective than short prison sentences."

The Justice Secretary said he wanted to focus efforts on making the core penalty of community service more effective, as that was where change would have the most impact.

"A coherent penal policy must encompass a range of appropriate punishments, including prison for serious and dangerous criminals as well as tough community penalties for less serious offenders. It's therefore vital that we make the range of community penalties available to the courts as robust as possible to ensure they can be used with confidence in all appropriate cases."