Easton & Piper: Sentencing and Punishment 2e 
DevelopmentsEaston & Piper: Sentencing and Punishment 2e
Chapter 12
12.1.3 Why community? pp 391-394
VUW – visible unpaid work initiative
This initiative - announced by the Government in 2005 - has now been rolled out across England and Wales. Home Office Circular 66/2005 to the National Probation Service set out the implications of 'Visible Unpaid Work and Community Engagement' (accessible @ www.probation.homeoffice.gov.uk/files/pdf/PC66%202005.pdf). It states that 'Visible Unpaid Work is an overall approach to delivery and is underpinned by the principle that the work undertaken by offenders should, where appropriate, be marked in such a way that it can be recognized by the local community' (at p.1).
The most recent manifestation of this move to 'visibility' of offenders and 'Payback' work to the community is the Government's order in December 2008 of 10,000 orange vests with 'Community Payback' written on the back in purple to mark out offenders doing manual work. The introduction of such distinctive clothing for offenders has led to considerable criticism, particularly from NAPO, in terms of human rights, personal safety and effectiveness. For academic discussion of this development see:
Bottoms, A. (2008) 'The Community Dimension of Community Penalties' Howard Journal Vol 47(2) pp 146-169
12.2.2. Choosing the community punishment pp 396-7
Three years on: The Community Order and Suspended Sentence Order - the views and experiences of probation officers and offenders, is the final in a series of reports exploring community sentences that have been published by the Centre for crime and Justice Studies, Kings College, London. This most recent report considers the extent to which the orders have had the hoped-for impact on providing an alternative to short-term custodial sentences, as well as their impact on probation practice and the management of community-based orders. (See the Monthly ebulletin March 2009 of the CCJS; the report can be downloaded at:
www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sentenceshreeyearson.html)
12.3.4. National Probation Service pp 403-406
A recent report by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, King's College, London, in association with NAPO details the rise in work loads in relation to assessment, delivering community penalties, and supervising prisoners on release. It focuses on the difficulties of resourcing and staffing the changes. For example it notes that the ratio of offenders to qualified probation officers has risen from 31:1 to 40:1 – an increase of 28 per cent. The Report concludes: 'Our overall impression has been that a period of stability, reflection and objective analysis would be beneficial for the probation service. We are doubtful that this is likely to be the case' (p.5)
See: Oldfield, M. and Grimshaw, R. (2008) Probation Resources, Staffing and Workloads 2001-2008. London, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, King's College in association with NAPO.
12.3.5 The Offender Management Act 2007
Silvestri, A. (June 2009) Partners or Prisoners? Voluntary sector independence in the world of commissioning and contestability, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Kings College, London) At: www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/opus1646/Partners_or_prisoners_report.pdf
This report on a debate on the voluntary sector's involvement in the criminal justice system concludes as follows:
“Key issues that emerged from the debate included:
The importance of retaining the values underpinning voluntary organisations: its ethical core will be vital in helping the sector tackle new processes and partnerships without becoming assimilated and subservient
The need to engage with issues of financial robustness in the part of the sector that is involved in criminal justice
The undesirability of a ‘one size fits all’ model and the importance of maintaining the diversity and complexity of the voluntary sector, as well as its capacity to campaign, protest and innovate
The sector’s role in providing a voice for the needs of offenders, who have become ‘one of the most despised groups in society’.”
12.5.1 The Survival of Rehabilitation pp 413-414
Gwen Robinson, in a recent paper, challenges the view that rehabilitation as a penal strategy is dead or irrelevant and considers the ways in which it has adapted to the modern penal context of England and Wales.
See: G. Robinson 'Late-modern rehabilitation: The evolution of a penal strategy', Punishment and Society Vol 10(4) October 2008, pp 429-46.
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