New pilot scheme allows public vote on how to punish young offenders

A pilot scheme which allows people to suggest how young offenders should be punished has been launched by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) in the north-west of England.

The “Making Good Scheme” will invite members of the public and community groups to suggest community reparation activities young offenders could undertake through the Youth Justice Board's (YJB) website. The YJB said public suggestions will be considered and implemented where practicable by the 19 youth offending teams that operate across the north-west.

The YJB has noted community reparation is unpaid work which benefits charities and the community such as cleaning graffiti, repairing vandalism and working in libraries. However, the YJB emphasised that it is not a form of “cheap labour” to put someone else out of a job.

According to the YJB, the aim of a community reparation order, as part of a community sentence, is to help prevent a young person, between the ages of 10 and 17, from further offending by understanding the consequences of their actions and taking responsibility for what they have done. The order requires the young person to repair the harm caused by their offence either directly to the victim or indirectly to the community.

YJB Chair Frances Done said reparation work is vital in helping young people understand the consequences of their actions, while repairing the harm caused by their offence."

"For the first time local people are being asked for specific ideas for community reparation which will benefit both their local area and the young person carrying out the work,” she told the BBC.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw told BBC Radio 4 Today that the new Youth Rehabilitation Order (YRO) would be rigorous.

"What we're doing is introducing a smarter and stronger system,” he said.

According to Mr Straw the YRO is a single order and the crown court judge or the youth justice magistrates can select a series of requirements in it.

"For example, a curfew, education attendant centres, drug treatment, drug testing,” he said. “In certain cases, electronic monitoring - in other words tagging on a curfew. And right at the top end, intensive supervision and surveillance."

The pilot scheme will run in Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire and Greater Manchester until 31 January 2010 and, if successful, will be expanded across all of England and Wales next year.

For more information please visit: http://www.yjb.gov.uk/en-gb/yjs/MakingGood/