‘Chain gangs’ of offenders in hi-vis jackets to clean up graffiti
‘Chain gangs’ of offenders in hi-vis jackets will be deployed to clean up graffiti, fly-tipping and vandalism in England and Wales, the Justice Secretary has said.
Alex Chalk said the rapid deployment teams, comprising offenders serving sentences in the community, will be expanded from pilot schemes to cover all 12 probation regions in England and Wales.
They will pick up litter from roadsides, scrub graffiti from shopfronts and underpasses and maintain neighbourhood beauty spots within 48 hours of cases being reported to the probation service.
Members of the public are being invited to nominate projects in their local area under the community payback scheme, under which offenders are in hi-vis jackets so the public can see that justice is being done.
The pilots were launched as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour by Mr Chalk when he was a junior justice minister almost three years ago.
‘Making our streets safer’
“Anti-social behaviour undermines people’s sense of pride in their communities and makes them feel unsafe in the place they call home,” said Mr Chalk, who donned one of the hi-vis jackets to help out on a clear-up on Thursday.
“That’s why this Government is taking a zero tolerance approach with our plan to stamp it out. Our plan is working, with clean-up teams not only tackling the corrosive effect of such crimes but also forcing offenders to repay their debts to the very neighbourhoods they have harmed, cutting reoffending and making our streets safer.”
Offenders are dressed in orange jackets with “community payback” on their backs, and councils and police commissioners are urged to use the unpaid workers for “local and visible” clean-up projects.
The expansion comes as thousands of offenders will spend two weeks giving back to the communities they have harmed in a concerted nationwide clean-up.
Offenders on community payback will put in more than 12,000 hours of labour clearing tons of litter across 400 projects in support of Keep Britain Tidy’s annual Great British Spring Clean campaign.
Each year, courts hand down more than 50,000 unpaid work requirements to punish offenders for crimes including theft, criminal damage and alcohol-related offences.
