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Probation head: Fine criminals rather than give them work
Peter Dominiczak20 Aug 2009
Thousands of criminals should be given fines instead of community sentences, the head of the Probation Service said today.
Phil Wheatley claimed his service was at risk of being "overwhelmed" because magistrates were giving too many offenders community service.
Officials in the National Offender Management Service may resort to reducing supervision levels for offenders considered to be at low risk of harming the public.
Mr Wheatley said: "It is important that the courts think carefully whether a community sentence is really the best option."
A record 147,000 people were given community sentences last year, while the number of fines fell sharply.
Magistrates have reacted angrily to the claim. John Thornhill, chairman of the Magistrates' Association, said: "Mr Wheatley has to put everything in the context of a budget We come from the angle of justice."
It comes after London Probation Service admitted serious failings in the case of Dano Sonnex, who was convicted of the murders of two French students while under the supervision of probation officers.
Reader views (4)
No wonder the country is in the midst of a crime wave with clowns like this in charge ? Just how do idiots like this make it to the head of a justice organisation ? Politically correct, liberal apologists have brought the country to its knees. Unless you haven't noticed people your little social experiment has failed miserably! It is time to return to a prison service where it is primarily a punishment and is somewhere you never want to be sent. It should be hard and brutal wit hno comforts of any kind and where you are made to work for 18 hours a day. Only then when scumbags fear being sent there will we return to a better country and where people do not fear to walk at night.
- Duncan Walker, Ex Peckham now Thailand, 21/08/2009 03:44
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Build more prisons and lock them up! Community sentences
are treated as nothing more than a lark by the lowlifes
and fines will never be paid.
- Lb, Bromley, 20/08/2009 22:00
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There's a simple way to solve both the budget side of this, and the fact that community sentences are soft and fines never get paid. Bring back corporal punishment for criminals such as the birch which we had until the 1960s. Cheap, effective, got to be more of a deterrant than a £500 fine paid at 5p per week, or a soft "community service" sentence. When will we have politicians that have the balls to bring back proper punishments for crime rather than focussing on soft targets?
- H Morgan, London, 20/08/2009 12:40
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What is the point in fining them? It will be the tax payer at the end of the day who will end up paying.
".. reducing supervision levels for offenders considered to be at low risk of harming the public."
We already have scum only doing half the time or even less thanks to Labour, who then carry on raping and murdering without prejudice when released.
What a fantastically failed judicial system we have. Our country has been reduced to a criminals paradise because of this profoundly corrupt government.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 20/08/2009 10:54
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