Inside Justice Week is Payback Time
17 Nov 2006
Six and a half million unpaid work hours are completed by offenders every year, worth £32 million to the economy. Inside Justice Week, taking place from 18-25 November, is highlighting some of the benefits which this work is already bringing to communities and encouraging people to nominate work they want to see done.
Members of the community-based association Round Table will be teaming up with their local Probation Service and joining offenders on projects in five cities. Home Office ministers Baroness Scotland and Gerry Sutcliffe will also be out and about seeing the work being done.
Baroness Scotland will even pull on the Wellington boots herself as she joins members of Thames Valley Criminal Justice Board cleaning up around an Oxford hospital.
Baroness Scotland says:
"Over six million unpaid work hours are a constructive way for offenders to pay back communities for the crimes they have committed. We want to see more local people come forward and tell us what they want to see done.
"I'm delighted that Round Table will not only be lending some extra pairs of hands during Inside Justice Week but also sharing their business expertise with the offenders they are working with. This can only help the offenders' reintegration back into their local communities at the end of their sentence.
"We welcome their involvement and are encouraging similar initiatives from the voluntary sector."
Richard du Bois, National President of the Round Tables of Britain and Ireland said:
"This is a unique collaboration as it is enabling people undertaking Unpaid Work to work with Round Tablers who are key members of the community including bank managers, doctors and accountants.
"Not only will it help improve the condition of cities across the UK, it will provide an opportunity for people, who will often be of a similar age, to learn from each other."