A new approach in allowing communities in Doncaster to have their say about how crimes have affected them has been launched.
Community Impact Statements have been introduced for use in cases which are deemed to have had a significant detrimental effect on neighbourhoods.
Naheed Hussain, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS in South Yorkshire and vice-chair of the South Yorkshire Criminal Justice Board, said: “The aim of the statements is to give the public a voice in the criminal justice process by providing relevant and useful additional information about the impact that offences are having on communities.
“The statements allow criminal justice agencies to understand the detrimental effect that a particular crime may have had on a neighbourhood.”
The statements are designed to be used in appropriate cases prior to key decision points, for example charge and sentencing, and explain the impact that the particular offending has had on a neighbourhood. They will usually be compiled by a police inspector.
Examples of where such a statement could be used may be the criminal damage of a community centre – which would have a detrimental effect on the community groups which use the building – or crimes which have been identified by communities through public meetings, such as Partners and Communities Together (PACT), as being of a specific concern in their neighbourhood.
The first ever community impact statement in Doncaster was heard at the town’s magistrates’ court last month, when a 20 year-old man was ordered to undertake 200 hours unpaid work for the community under the Community Payback scheme and to pay £500 compensation, for stealing lead from Finningley Village Hall. The community impact statement gave information to the court regarding the community groups which regularly meet at the hall and how they may be affected by the damage caused.
A vital strand of community impact statements is that the cases must be tracked through the courts by relevant criminal justice agencies, e.g. police and CPS, so that the results can be fed back to the affected communities.
A cross-agency project team, led by the South Yorkshire Criminal Justice Board, was set up in January 2010 charged with establishing the processes for community impact statements in Doncaster. The team comprises of agencies including South Yorkshire Police, the Crown Prosecution Service, Her Majesty’s Courts Service, Probation, Youth Offending Service, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, the Doncaster Neighbourhood Crime and Justice Co-ordinator and Victim Support.
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Doncaster is one of the test areas for the scheme, which is due to be assessed during the winter.
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Notes to Editors:
1. Community Payback is a punishment handed out by the courts. It’s demanding unpaid work, carried out by offenders in the community, and is a national scheme delivered locally by South Yorkshire Probation Trust.
In South Yorkshire alone more than 270,000 hours of Community Payback were completed last year by offenders on a community sentence. This equates to more than £1.5 million of free labour provided to local communities by offenders paying back for the crimes they have committed.
Offenders have to wear orange high-visibility jackets, marked Community Payback, so you can see that they’re paying back to your community for their crimes.
Community Payback projects range from the upgrading of local community areas to clearing dense undergrowth, and environmental projects through repairing and redecorating community centres or removing graffiti.
2. The South Yorkshire Criminal Justice Board was set up in April 2003 to oversee the criminal justice system (CJS) in South Yorkshire, and consists of members from the following criminal justice agencies: the police, the crown prosecution service (CPS), the courts, probation, prisons and youth offending teams (YOTs).
3. The Community Impact Statement (CIS) test is a multi agency framework involving the police, CPS, probation, Youth Justice Board and the judiciary. The CIS is designed to make community views more visible to crime and justice service providers and to be used as a mechanism to feed community views directly into the justice process. Community Impact Statements will enable crime and justice practitioners to consider offences in the context in which they are committed and take account of the harm inflicted on the wider community.
For further information please contact Melanie Hill from the South Yorkshire Criminal Justice Board on 07527 847423.
