Criminals 'molly-coddled' by probation staff, says MP

9:00am Monday 21st May 2012 in Aire Valley

Probation chiefs have been accused of “molly-coddling” criminals on community service after complaints they spent as much time drinking tea, eating lunch and travelling as they did clearing up.

An investigation was launched by West Yorkshire Probation Trust following complaints that the team of criminals spent just four hours of the day picking litter and clearing Ferniehurst Dell, Baildon, after being handed community punishment sentences by the courts.

Shipley MP Philip Davies complained to the Ministry of Justice after hearing about the “completely unacceptable” situation.

In a reply, Crispin Blunt MP, parliamentary under-secretary of state for justice, said: “The West Yorkshire Probation Trust has conducted an internal investigation into the situation reported to you at Ferniehurst Dell. The trust acknowledges that, on this occasion, the required standards that the work should be rigorous for offenders and of benefit to the community were not met.”

Ian Lyons, chairman of Ferniehurst Dell Improve-ment Partnership and Bradford Councillor Debbie Davies organised for the community payback team to visit Ferniehurst Dell on March 23. Mr Lyons said the team did not turn up until about 10.30am and then had a drinks break while probation officers explained what they would be doing on site.

They carried out less than two hours of work before being taken by bus to another work site two miles away for lunch. The team returned nearly two hours later and worked from about 2pm until 4pm, said Mr Lyons.

“It was just farcical. They were supposed to be there working to pay back the community when the actual fact was that they spent most of their time either travelling or on a break. When they were working, they were working really hard, but people expect them to be working for the full day.”

Coun Davies (Con, Baildon) said: “We provided toilets for them and it was a nice day, so they could have eaten their lunch outside instead of being taken away, which wasted even more time. They were being molly-coddled.”

The trust has introduced new rules to ensure a minimum working day at all its sites. The Government has also brought in new rules that the working day for community payback will be at least seven hours.

Andrew Chandler, head of offender services at West Yorkshire Probation Trust said: “This is an isolated incident that we investigated as soon as our staff reported the issue. We then took immediate action to make sure our high standards of work would not be compromised again.”

Comments(15)

Joedavid says...
9:29am Mon 21 May 12

Not like the American movies then.

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nohidingplace says...
10:11am Mon 21 May 12

The whole thing is a cop out, I remember a while ago seeing a couple of lads doing “community payback” clearing a coastal path in on the north yorks coast, they walked past most of the litter, picked up the odd piece, stopped and smoked a joint. It was a joke.
Why not teach them how to build and then get them building more prisons, if they work from the inside, and don’t put any doors in, it’s be a good start!

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johnhem says...
10:23am Mon 21 May 12

its quite simple really, if you give them a 4 hour job to do and its not done right then the 4 hour stint is repeated. if they start with 80 hours to do, and the first job is for 4 hours, if its not done right then they STILL have 80 hours to do.

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Albion. says...
11:10am Mon 21 May 12

It's all nonsense and a soft option, there shouldn't be any of this, they should all be locked away and have no rights whatsoever! I don't go about breaking the law, nobody else should have the right to, even if they are caught (very unlikely) they laugh at punishments like this.
There are plenty of empty buildings that could serve as prisons and plenty of spare walls to stand them against to face the firing squad (it should be introduced for armed robbery)!

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a reasonable sort of chap says...
11:47am Mon 21 May 12

PEOPLE WHO DELIBERATELY SET FIRE TO ANIMAL SANCTUARIES OUGHT TO BE HUNG, DRAWN & QUARTERED. I VOLUNTEER TO DO THE JOB.

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a reasonable sort of chap says...
11:51am Mon 21 May 12

Community Service sounds very much like the New Deal for unemployed people. Most of the time was spent drinking tea and doing buggger all. New Deal was, in effect, nothing more than a daytime prison for the unemployed. All the time I was sat there, doing nothing, there was a Community Service minibus parked outside full of other people also doing nothing!

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a reasonable sort of chap says...
11:53am Mon 21 May 12

nohidingplace wrote:
The whole thing is a cop out, I remember a while ago seeing a couple of lads doing “community payback” clearing a coastal path in on the north yorks coast, they walked past most of the litter, picked up the odd piece, stopped and smoked a joint. It was a joke.
Why not teach them how to build and then get them building more prisons, if they work from the inside, and don’t put any doors in, it’s be a good start!
Had they smoked the joint first they might have performed better at their task.

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Albion. says...
11:57am Mon 21 May 12

a reasonable sort of chap wrote:
PEOPLE WHO DELIBERATELY SET FIRE TO ANIMAL SANCTUARIES OUGHT TO BE HUNG, DRAWN & QUARTERED. I VOLUNTEER TO DO THE JOB.
You would probably be late.

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a reasonable sort of chap says...
12:06pm Mon 21 May 12

Albion. wrote:
a reasonable sort of chap wrote:
PEOPLE WHO DELIBERATELY SET FIRE TO ANIMAL SANCTUARIES OUGHT TO BE HUNG, DRAWN & QUARTERED. I VOLUNTEER TO DO THE JOB.
You would probably be late.
Don't worry, I'd set my alarm...

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Banjaxed says...
3:58pm Mon 21 May 12

a reasonable sort of chap wrote:
PEOPLE WHO DELIBERATELY SET FIRE TO ANIMAL SANCTUARIES OUGHT TO BE HUNG, DRAWN & QUARTERED. I VOLUNTEER TO DO THE JOB.
Why do you want to volunteer to deliberately burn down an animal sanctuary? Are you sick?

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cockadoodledo says...
5:48pm Mon 21 May 12

A few years ago Gilstead Village Society asked the probation for the young offenders to do a litter pick a round Gilstead.This was to be a quite simple task , so we thought. The reply came back, GVS would have to take out an insurance to cover the young 'offenders', provide refreshments & drinks and toilet facilities. Not such a simple task after all! Supposed to be a Community payback, just a joke.Didn't go any further withit, it was as though the probation were putting too many obstacles in the way so that they didnt have to bother doing it.How many of us are provided with refreshments when we go out to work??

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cockadoodledo says...
5:48pm Mon 21 May 12

A few years ago Gilstead Village Society asked the probation for the young offenders to do a litter pick a round Gilstead.This was to be a quite simple task , so we thought. The reply came back, GVS would have to take out an insurance to cover the young 'offenders', provide refreshments & drinks and toilet facilities. Not such a simple task after all! Supposed to be a Community payback, just a joke.Didn't go any further withit, it was as though the probation were putting too many obstacles in the way so that they didnt have to bother doing it.How many of us are provided with refreshments when we go out to work??

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ra-ra says...
6:12pm Mon 21 May 12

These scum bags should be sent to jail.

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Mik_e says...
9:44pm Mon 21 May 12

Probation is a farce and a cheap easy means of being able to record some form of punishment. Probation officers want an easy life and do not want to upset the convicts. The whole UK (in)justice system is a farce that no decent person has confidence in.

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gfy320 says...
10:32pm Mon 21 May 12

Community pay back is a total farce and waste of resources that implement this farce .
The whole system needs to be run by people capable of doing so .
total wate of everyones time.

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