Payback staff face violence and threats

Supervisors of Community Payback schemes, who manage the 55,000 offenders who are sentenced each year to unpaid work in local communities rather than sent to jail, are increasingly subject to threats of violence and physical and verbal abuse, probation officers' union Napo declared.

Napo assistant general secretary Harry Fletcher reported that most threats were made by the offenders against their supervisors, but he added that extreme violence - including at least three shootings in London - was carried out by gang members targeting rivals and directly threatened public safety.

Some supervisors had to lock themselves in their vehicles to escape physical violence while other criminal justice workers, often paid hourly wages and with minimal training, were so scared of reprisals that they were reluctant to report abuse, he said.

Napo's exposé came as Con-Dem coalition Justice Secretary Ken Clarke insisted that government plans for a "rehabiltation revolution" would see even more "low-risk offenders" ordered to spend 80 to 300 hours working in their local community rather than serving short prison terms.

The drive is intended to reduce the 85,000 prison population at a time when the government intends to slash a colossal £2 billion from the prison service's £9bn annual budget.

Penal reform campaigners have encouraged the greater use of community sentences for low-risk offenders convicted of petty and financial crimes such as failing to pay debts, in an attempt to ease prison overcrowding.

A Howard League for Penal Reform spokeswoman pointed out that more community sentences would "allow the prison service the opportunity to undertake proper work with those higher risk offenders who, for reasons of public protection, do need to be in custody."

But Mr Fletcher charged that, although "unpaid work clearly has an important role to fulfil in sentencing, if it is to be run by untrained and intimidated staff and if action isn't taken to decrease the threats, then the public will be at risk.

"Reports of abuse and threats are now occurring every working day, and it is abundantly clear that standards on unpaid work are deteriorating," he stressed.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman claimed that Community Payback supervisors "receive the relevant training in working with offenders and challenging unacceptable behaviour."

They insisted that only "relatively minor incidents such as verbal abuse" had been uncovered by bosses at the National Offender Management Service.

Mr Fletcher countered that Con-Dem plans to step up community sentencing and even contract out the supervision of offenders to private firms could compound the danger to the public.

"The idea that unpaid work can somehow be profitable makes no sense," he emphasised.

"A combination of a workforce who do not want to be there, and staff who are not trained to motivate, spells major problems for the future."