Calls for tougher community payback schemes

Victims of crime are treated as an afterthought by the criminal justice system in England and Wales, the first commissioner for victims of crime said in a preliminary report published this week, adding that the Government needs to get tougher on criminals outside of prison.

Louise Casey said victims often found themselves a “sideshow” while police, prisons, lawyers and the courts focused on the offender and called on ministers to punish criminals who fail to undertake work in the community, or repay fines.

Speaking ahead of a speech to the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), Mrs Casey said community payback schemes must be tightened up and made five days a week – and called for fines to be better enforced and support focused towards those victims who genuinely need it, rather than offering the service indiscriminately.

She went on to say that many victims do not know what happens to the offender and called for more of this information to be made public, something victims’ champion Sara Payne has campaigned for.

The Government must overcome its “squeamishness” about publishing information about what happens to criminals when they are prosecuted, to improve confidence in the courts, she said.

“Victims want people punished and they want them rehabilitated. Victims will be the first to say ‘I don’t want this to happen to anyone else’,” said Ms Casey.

“We need to get a lot tougher on punishing people properly in the community before they even move on to where they could be locked up. Why fine enforcement is so poorly done, I still do not understand. Fines are written off and not paid. The tone that should be set throughout the criminal justice system is that the punishment should fit the crime.”

Policing Minister, Nick Herbert said: “I welcome this report and I agree with a great deal of what Louise Casey says.

“Offenders need to know that their actions have consequences and we need a criminal justice service which never stops thinking about the interests of victims.

“The Government is determined to reform criminal justice, not by ineffective authoritarianism, hollow ‘get tough’ promises, higher spending or more central control, but through radical reform of policing, probation and prisons, using innovative policies such as payment by results to drive value for money and demand greater accountability for performance.”