Reparation Work For Offenders

Ways in which Leicester City Council can become involved in providing suitable community reparation projects for young and adult offenders have been discussed at a meeting with the Probation Service.

Probation officials met with senior council members and officers from all the council's departments, to explore ways in which the council can offer suitable community work.

'Community payback' involves offenders being given a set number of hours of unpaid work, intended to repair, directly or indirectly, the harm caused by the offence.

Examples of on-going reparation projects include sports coaching, helping at community centres, charity work, and environmental work such as gardening, erasing graffiti, painting, litter picking, etc.

The city council's youth offending service currently works with 76 reparation venues in the city, mostly voluntary and private, with less than a quarter currently operated by city council departments.

The meeting - held jointly by the Youth Offending Service and Probation - was chaired by Cllr Andy Metcalfe, cabinet lead for housing, and also attending was Cllr Mark Farmer, cabinet lead for strategic community renewal and safety.

Said city council leader Roger Blackmore, who also attended: "This shows the council's determination to to explore more opportunities to put offenders to work. I actively support restorative justice opportunities for young people to prevent and reduce offending, and the council should be fully involved in this very practical and useful work."

Cllr Farmer said: "It's very important that the council provides restorative justice interventions across departments."