Press Release
ONE-YEAR ON
· During the last year the Community Justice Centre has opened a second courtroom handling trial cases each Monday and Wednesday afternoon
· The centre's Community Resource team, which provides a wide range of services to the community, has expanded, recruiting an additional advisor for its Citizens Advice service to meet demand. Among its successes, up until August 2006, the service has helped more than 70 people deal with debt problems and successfully challenged nearly £5,000 worth of debts on behalf of its clients.
· The centre has had a huge response to its call for volunteers for its mentoring programme, 'Side by Side', with 25 now trained and working with offenders and their families.
· The centre's Victim Support and Witness Service has recruited 10 witness support volunteers to give emotional support and practical information to people attending court.
· The centre's housing advisor, seconded by Liverpool Housing Trust (LHT), has seen an increase in enquiries from members of the local community and has helped residents with issues including accessing accommodation, rent arrears, evictions, disrepair and landlord relations. The advisor also works with offenders going through the court system to address any housing issues which may be affecting their offending behaviour.
· In April this year, Judge Fletcher used a new power to impose an Alcohol Treatment Requirement (ATR), as part of a community order, for the first time. The order aims to make sure offenders tackle their alcohol problems which often add to their offending or re-offending behaviour.
Between April and August 2006, Judge Fletcher had ordered a total of 27 offenders to complete an ATR, with early signs showing that re-offending levels are low and over three quarters of offenders are carrying out their orders as directed.
· In May this year, the centre became a pilot review court, one of only two in England and Wales. Judge Fletcher is able to bring offenders back to court to check they are carrying out their community sentences properly. The centre has made 70 review orders since the powers were introduced.
· Judge Fletcher has been joined at the centre by a panel of volunteer magistrates. They deal with trials, where the defendant involved has pleaded not guilty and the case would typically have been sent to Liverpool Magistrates' Court for trial. These magistrates are drawn from a list of nearly 60 Merseyside magistrates who would usually sit at Liverpool Magistrates' Court.
· Community engagement activity during the year has seen the centre working in partnership with a wide number of agencies, including Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Positive Futures, The Streets Project and the local neighbourhood councils, to provide diversionary and educational activities, particularly for young people.
· During the Summer months the centre worked with 11 different partners to provide more than 30,000 hours of activities to over 500 young people, ranging from football coaching, canoeing and walking trips to arts, computer and gardening projects. These projects are designed to divert young people from offending in the community and promote social inclusion.
· Activity has also included working with partners to support the 'Your Choice' programme, which involves 800 pupils from 18 schools across North Liverpool. The programme teaches young people about the effect of anti-social behaviour and the consequences of getting involved in it. An event will take place as part of the centre's week of celebrations. Children learn about issues such as hoax calls to the emergency services, trespassing on rail tracks and the effects of vandalism in their neighbourhoods.
· The Community Justice Centre has established a community reparation programme, which aims to make sure offenders sentenced to unpaid work as part of a community order, carry out tasks which benefit local people and their neighbourhoods.
Developed with the centre's Probation Service and Youth Offending teams, the programme sees both adult and young offenders carrying out their unpaid work orders in areas identified by the community, where their input will have the most benefit for local people.
Projects include a recent campaign to clean up the grounds of St Sylvester's Church in Silvester Street, Vauxhall, the development of a children's nature trail at a local neighbourhood centre and an initiative to improve the Leeds Liverpool canal and its surroundings at Vauxhall, to make the area more pleasant for local people.
In order to gain feedback from local people, the centre has set up two reference groups, one for adults and one for young people. They meet regularly with Judge Fletcher to help to identify issues that affect the community and the kind of work they would like to see offenders carry out, for example, clean up of the local canal and grot spots. They are also helping to earmark specific areas within the neighbourhood where sentences can be carried out, to ensure that the community benefits directly.