Community penalty scheme

JUSTICE SECRETARY Kenny MacAskill was in Kirkcaldy yesterday to witness a community penalty clean-up programme for offenders.

Bill Kinnear, service manager with the Criminal Justice Service, introduced him to the project, which involves clearing the bases of the trees along the pedestrian precinct on the High Street.

He said, “Community service requires offenders to carry out work designed to provide direct benefit to the community as a whole.

“Projects can range from individual placements providing assistance to the elderly or the disabled to group work such as refurbishment projects.

“The work is intended to be challenging, demanding, providing a direct and visible benefit to the community, with offenders being closely supervised at all times.”

Councillor George Kay, strategic chairman of police, fire and safety, added, “In Fife we are keen to support and work alongside communities and are actively involved with several community projects.

“It is important that those who cause offence to others give something back to their community.”

Mr MacAskill used the visit to highlight the results of a recent meeting to discuss the independent Prisons Commission report with CoSLA representatives, where Scotland’s local authorities pledged to work harder to enhance public safety and reduce re-offending.

He said, “Many of the recommendations impact on the delivery of services in the community by local authorities.”

Mr MacAskill added, “We need a credible and robust package of community penalties, with payback at its heart, alongside a tough end-to-end sentence management regime for those offenders for whom prison will remain the appropriate disposal.

“We need to provide services which improve our arrangements for the support and resettlement of offenders, but also meet the rights of local communities to pay back for the harm caused by less serious offending.

“Jointly with our local authority partners we will draw up further proposals to meet these common aims.”

Harry McGuigan of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities said, “We look forward to working closely with the Government to deliver our shared objective—fewer short prison sentences, more people paying back to the community for the harm they have done.

“Local authorities, working with their strategic partners the community justice authorities, have a huge role to play in the speedy delivery and effective management of community sentences,” the councillor said.

The Scottish Government is also planning to make record levels of investment in the prison estate, with three new facilities in the pipeline, the first of which will open at Addiewell in January.