Scheme to rehabilitate anti-social behaviour offenders with community work hits milestone

An initiative to ensure people who commit anti-social behaviour and low-level offences participate in community reparation work is making strides to rehabilitate first-time offenders.

Immediate Justice, which is a collaboration between the force’s Prevention Hub and the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office, ensures those who commit anti-social behaviour and low-level offences are made to clean up local streets or public spaces, work in a soup kitchen, pick litter, remove graffiti, or take part in other positive community activities within days of their offence.

The scheme, launched in January, has now been running for six months and has seen almost 200 referrals from more than 30 force-wide departments and 31 different types of offences.

Nottinghamshire Police and partners including local authorities, Red Snapper Managed Services, and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Nottinghamshire continue to work collaboratively with a united approach to deliver the scheme.

An offender is required to complete seven hours of reparatory community work alongside existing learning and rehabilitative conditions where their offending has been deemed suitable for an out-of-court resolution.

Reparatory activities have taken place across Nottinghamshire, ranging from public spaces, parks, alleyways, and community centres – the options are extensive.

Immediate Justice is only available to eligible first-time or low-level offenders and provides them with an alternative to attending court or paying fines by spending time completing unpaid work to repair the harm they have caused to communities.

This demonstrates to communities in a very visible way that anti-social behaviour and low-level offending are treated seriously and with urgency, whilst also acting as a deterrent to others.

However, serial offenders will be robustly prosecuted through the criminal justice system.

To ensure decisive action is taken in response to instances of anti-social behaviour, Immediate Justice placements should be completed within 48 hours of a referral to the scheme, which is set to operate until March 2025.

The swift process is designed to allow victims to move on with their lives as an out-of-court disposal avoids any necessity to attend court and improves victim outcomes.

Offenders who are referred to the scheme are monitored by criminal justice intervention service supervisors as they carry out work in neighbourhoods across the city and county, which takes place six days a week.

The Prevention Hub is a collaboration between multiple force departments responsible for developing and delivering strategies to prevent crime and disorder throughout the city and county.

Inspector Brendan Gaynor, Nottinghamshire Police’s Prevention Hub lead for Immediate Justice, said: “The Immediate Justice scheme has proven to be really effective since its launch earlier this year and I'm particularly pleased with the number of different police teams who have used the programme, and the open-minded approach that has seen so many different offence types being included.

“The streamlined process has produced positive feedback, especially around how offenders have benefitted from the scheme in changing their outlook and decision-making, which has been really imp​active.

“Immediate Justice will shortly enter an exciting new phase as a scheme for young people is being finalised and pathways for local authorities to refer directly into the scheme are being developed.

“This is a welcome addition and will provide a strong intervention designed to get young people to reflect on their behaviour and, more importantly, make better decisions going forward. It will be an invaluable tool for neighbourhood policing teams in providing effective, early intervention.”

Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Gary Godden said: “Improving neighbourhood policing and providing the teams on the streets with the tools they need is one of my key priorities, so seeing referral numbers for Immediate Justice increasing since its launch is incredibly pleasing.

“The initiative provides a unique way of dealing with low-level offenders and making sure they can reflect on their actions while being able to give back to the community within days of their offence.”

“We want to show communities in a very visible way that anti-social behaviour is being treated seriously and with urgency, whilst also acting as a deterrent to others.”