This follows on from a thread in which I mentioned community service for offenders… What has happened to offenders given community service? Pre Covid I used to see them regularly in high vis jackets picking litter, removing graffiti or working on projects like communal gardens or play areas but I haven’t seen any for a very long time. Surely they can’t all be working from home – can they?
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it’s quite hard to find overview stats just for the last couple of years but most of the [quarterly bulletins](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-justice-statistics-quarterly) seem to show no significant changes either way.
afaik ~~absolutely zero~~ very few* “working from home” forms of community resolution were introduced during Covid, & zero are continuing, so if you’re seeing fewer people locally it’s probably just a local choice/coincidence. Maybe if you saw them regularly that means the local ‘need’ has been satisfied and they’re being sent elsewhere. You should probably direct this question to your local councillors or MP.
(*) sorry, I forgot the mask-making in 2020.
I can absolutely tell you that there are more hours being given than ever (it seems) to people on probation. There was ‘at home’ projects during
Covid where they would make face masks for communities which was successful. There are a lot of school projects – ie repainting schools, sorting the grounds (as long as the offence is appropriate for that project). Projects run 7 days a week. Problem now is that there’s too many hours to complete and not enough staff! For a positive spin, maybe in your area they’ve done a lot of work already perhaps, or maybe more people are getting custodial sentences.
Source: work for the service
In Scotland it is called a community pay back order. Like a lot of things it is a high demand but under funded resource. I’ve looked at the job spec for the supervisor role and it’s £28k and for that you have to manage a group, source and risk assess all the activities. Plus getting abuse from folk who breach the terms of the order and you’re responsible for reporting it.
I saw some cleaning litter the other day so they are (at least in my area) out and about.
It’s called community payback.
Depending on the crime, its usually either in a charity shop/other public facing service. Or it’s out and about, landscaping, litter picking, graveyard clean-up etc.
Still happens, but usually they do not wear identifying clothes.