Convicted criminals sentenced to community service are to clear a wooded area close to Demesne Drive in Stalybridge as part of the Community Payback Scheme.
The area is a neglected piece of land often used for fly tipping as well as being a location that attracts groups of young people engaged in anti-social behaviour such as starting nuisance fires.
Councillor Basil Beeley said: “The area will benefit from Community Payback as the land often gets full of litter and it demonstrates how the different organisations are working together for the good of the community.” GMP
I have mixed feelings about this initiative. I wholeheartedly agree that offenders should be forced to payback the community by doing this type of work, but I am not keen on the public shaming of offenders by forcing them to wear the bright orange vests identifying them as offenders.
The problem with public shaming is; when you have removed a persons dignity and identified them to the public as a criminal offender, you can then start a sequence of events which otherwise may have been avoidable. When I took the photograph of the Community Payback Team I was careful not to include the faces of the offenders and thus identifying them, however to passers by it is plain as day who the offenders are.
I do not know the nature of the crimes committed by these people, but say for example the lad in the centre of the picture was a first time offender. He goes to Tesco to purchase a bottle of WKD. He gets to the checkout and is asked for ID to prove his age by an over officious checkout assistant, he says; are you having a laugh I am 27. They refuse to serve him, he then grabs the bottle of WKD and makes a dash for the exit - where he is apprehended by security (I heard about this happening at Tesco Stalybridge not long ago), he is then arrested, goes to court and sentenced to join the Community Payback initiative.
Day one of his punishment he turns up and is introduced to fellow offenders who are part of the team. He is quickly integrated into the team and forms a friendship with ‘Jamie’. Jamie is on the team for shoplifting too, but unlike the first time offender Jamie has been here many times before as a result of his heroin addiction. Our man and Jamie are hard at work when a white van pulls up beside them as they work at the side of the road. A voice from the van shouts at our man and he walks over - it is his workmates from the warehouse where he works. They ask him what he is doing; when they see Community Payback emblazoned all over his high viz vest they ask no further questions and bid him good day.
Next day he gets in work and is called to the MD’s office. He is asked why he did not declare his conviction to the company, he is immediately dismissed and sent packing - P45 in hand.
Next day, now being out of work and bored he decides to give ‘Jamie’ a call and see what he is up to. ‘Jamie’ is with friends in a flat in a run down part of the borough; he invites our man to come and join them. When he gets there he meets ‘Jamie’s’ friends and is eventually passed a piece of tinfoil, on which he notices is a brown powder like substance. They encourage him to light it and inhale the smoke, they tell him it is ‘good stuff’ and will make him feel better after losing his job. Six months later, well, watch the brutally realistic Danny Boyle movie Trainspotting to see where this type of journey ends.
This of course an imaginary worst case scenario situation - but I am not too sure on the public humiliation aspect of this type of punishment.
53 comments:
Depends what they've done init
dont be so soft they deserve punishment and dont have to follow oyher crims like lemmings.i know several scum bags who do mild naughty things when you try to help them and try to explain how they can be decent they blame it on being in care when they were young. load of rubbish its an excuse look at poor me attitude.I was one of 5 thrown out when i was 16 cos i was gay. worked hard all my life got plenty now never looked back i was determined not to be dragged down and be succesful i did it all on my own with no one to thank . that lad didnt need to mix with shit he choose too instead of hanging his head in digrace he joined em.an old man once said to me never bother with poor people they drag you down too there level no truer word i have ever heard, exept today it should be poorer or lower class
I have been told that Westy is looking for a job now, hes been down to the centre(used a sat nav) told them he wants to be a chimney sweep,or a bus conductor.
A sob story that abnegates personal responsibility and accountability. The fictitious individual you describe had a series of choices and made the wrong one every time. Holding people accountable for doing what is incorrect and punishing them accordingly used to be the foundation of the criminal justice system in Britain. If the sanction is severe enough it WILL prevent re-offending. Naming and shaming is a form of punishment that concerns me only in that it may not be effective enough as punishment and deterrent. Corporal punishment is better for this type of offence.
Another important aspect is removing the 'grey areas' and any doubt in a potential offender's mind. These people are experts at playing the system and think, 'Apology, soft Judge, bit of bulls**t in the social report about broken home etc, that should get it down a good bit'. If they KNEW that being convicted of burglary meant a mandatory seven years in a 6'x10' concrete room 23 hours a day with no Playstations, TV and the Five Star conditions that currently await them, the vast majority of them would think better of it. In their minds it's a question of risk, reward and potential punishment. Certainty of a harsh sanction would influence their thinking and behaviour.
The convicts are being punished twice. This is a violation of their human rights and they should refuse to wear the orange bibs but still do the work to which they were sentenced.
The thing which ammuses me about those who wish to "name and shame" others is that they are usually the LAST who are competant to do so.
POLICE...Stefan Kisko and Jean Chharles de Menenes (spl?)
Newspapers....many owned by porn merchants and manned by journalists,,,lying cheating drunks.
TV and Radio..... ditto with the added feature of employing thugs and killers as security men
The courts.....who convicted Stefan Kisko, Birmingham six etc etc
Councillors..........errr I haven't space for their misdeeds
"Let he without sin name and shame the first
A devastating epidemic of death is about to sweep the globe. It is a mutation of three vicious strains of the flu virus and has already caused many deaths in Ukraine. Many of you reading this will be infected soon. The swine flu vacine is useless against this mutation. Coroners reports on dead victims of the virus claim their lungs were "black as charcoal". It sounds like the Spanish flu has returned.
Now this blog is full of whinging do gooders, send them down and throw away the keys, shoot the rapist , child molesters and murderers.
Se how crime drops and the prisons become empty.
'The convicts are being punished twice'. You're right propping a broom up for a few hours and being made to wear a hi-viz jacket is shockingly draconian. After all what's fifty or sixty trifling burglaries and the consequent devastation and distress to the lives of the victims. No wonder crime and disorder are out of control with the spread of such utterly irrational liberal thinking.
And shoot all bnp members and suPporters
It's not a case of being a soft Liberal, it's a case of what they have done!
NO, I would not shoot them all some are just misguided and Tony Jones is a nice person hes just got poor political views in my opinion.
Off course JT what would say if you were still paying back the community, through your criminal activities in the early 80's. You can't keep punishing a person for the same crime.
"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." (Matthew 7:1-5 RSV)
If God didn't want us to judge why did He give us the capacity for judgment.
JT, yet another example of your holding views that are totally contrary to your Party's. Why are you a member and representative of a Party whose approach to the Criminal Justice system is chronically soft, lenient and directly endangers instead of protecting the law abiding.
Cos I earn around £67,000 per year because of them.
We are supposed to respect those who judge us, yet behind closed doors they themselves are hypocrites and corrupt!
Leading bishops have delivered a damning assessment of Labour's record in power, branding the Government "morally corrupt".
Leading bishops have delivered a damning assessment of Labour's record in power, branding the Government "morally corrupt".
Five senior figures from the Church of England warned that the country was suffering from family breakdown, an addiction to debt and a growing gap between rich and poor.
The bishops of Durham, Winchester, Manchester, Carlisle and Hulme accused ministers of squandering their opportunity to transform society and pursuing "scandalous" policies.
The interventions, in separate interviews with the Sunday Telegraph, came after the Archbishop of Canterbury launched an extraordinary public attack on the Government last week.
Dr Rowan Williams said Gordon Brown's plans to spend more in order to tackle the recession were like an "addict returning to the drug", and suggested the economy had been going in the wrong direction for decades.
The Rt Rev Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham, berated ministers for not doing enough to help the poor since 1997.
"Labour made a lot of promises, but a lot of them have vanished into thin air," he sa
Public Sector borrowing was £11.4billion for October alone, the highest since records began in 1946. This takes the government's borrowing to £86.9 billion for this year alone, so far. By the end of the year it is on course to top £200 billion, an enormous 14.3% above the government's already massive predicted figure of £175 billion. They are, on the most modest estimates, currently borrowing £330,000 A MINUTE.
Incompetence, phenomenal waste, mismanagement and sheer recklessness, particularly the spending in the last 14 months when Labour should have been implementing massive cuts in public spending but instead maintained and increased their reckless spending, has led Britain to a financial precipice. Virtually all of this expenditure went on propping up the vastly bloated Public Sector and shoring up the banks leaving peanuts to be injected into 'stimulating' the real economy. The pathetic Queen's Speech revealed the government to be bereft of everything from integrity, ideas and character to guts.
The wreckage of New Labour's disastrous twelve and a half year spending splurge, which they substituted for responsible governance will take decades to put right.
Solution: Kill everyone convicted of more than three criminal offences. What's the down side?
They would want to claim a death grant, (would be worth it though)
It's ok, we can call the BNP for this and for that, but we can carry on being corrupt ourselves just don't get caught like I have.
Re Trainspotting, junkies aren't victims they are a plague like locusts that feed on civilised society. We need to stop being so squeamish, self-indulgent and soft and start eradicating these trouble making parasites.
'No person, no problem': Josef Stalin.
Anyone seen Lady Knighton shes not been seen at any public meetings for a while.
Word is shes had a big fall out with some of the rebel group and shes been warned by the regional office about her behaviour.
'You are at your very best, when things are worse.'
TC remind us all of the very first blog article you did.
Don't keep punishing a person, give them a second chance. We all make mistakes in life.
Britains population set to swell by 15 million in the next 20 years - as a direct result of third world immigration. This absolute criminal insanity . Please stop this madness now!
Roll on the civil war. The bloodbath can't come soon enough.
A crime isn't a 'mistake' it's a calculated evil act. Evil has to be destroyed by the severe punishment of evildoers or it grows.
Depends on what you see as a mistake.
A mistake is an error, there is no intent. No-one ever burgled, robbed, or murdered anyone without intent.
Nation State hating Herman Van Rompuy's appointment as EU President will turn up the heat on Cameron the liar and coward.
Well said the above. Tom, have you joined UKIP yet as your leader is an utterly unprincipled liar with no guts to boot.
Keep an eye out for us this weekend we are in two areas with two large Labour groups canvassing.
Stalybridge and Denton will be targeted again the campaign will run for about two months.
We will also have an advertising campaign the first one appeared in the Advertiser this week a well known national advertising company who once helped the Tories are running the campaign for us.
Voter ID and increasing our postal voters will be one of the aims of the campaign but the main aim will be that one to one contact you just cant beat it.
We will also be delivering a first class leaflet one of many in the coming months.
Just got back from the Conservative club on Mottram road Stalybridge I go every week to view premiership football the beer is cheap and its just round the corner from me.
They did not have the City v Liverpool match on anyone know why ?
Read this weeks Advertiser they have been caught showing Sky without a proper license from Sky its called cheating, I understand several high profile councillors are regular viewers.
Huge fine with cost imposed.
Had it been the Labour club in Stalybridge who had been caught fiddling Sky, TC would have had it the blog days ago.
Had it been the Labour Club the Advertiser would have buried it so f**k off you bent Labour c**t.
Bent, oh dear did you mean the people who run the Tory club when you used the word bent,depriving one of their main supporters of his weekly subs for the football,what will Mr Murdoch think of them when he finds out.
Expect a big increase in the price of a pint until the fine is paid.
I wonder who grassed them up Suzanne was in the Labour club and she mentioned it a while ago.
Hell hath no furry like a woman scorned, she was seen with two official looking men with Sky jackets on being treated in the lounge bar last week
One Society Many Cultures
Launch
Monday 23rd November
Rt. Hon Sadiq Khan MP
Ken Livingstone
Susan Kramer MP
Emily Thornberry MP
Jenny Jones — London Assembly Member
Dr Abdul Bari — Muslim Council of Britain
Rabbi Lee Wax — Jewish Council for Racial Equality
Bruce Kent — Vice-President, Pax Christi
Dabinderjit Singh OBE — Spokesman for Sikh Secretariat
Anas Altikriti — British Muslim Initiative
Billy Hayes — General Secretary, Communication Workers Union
Keith Sonnet — Deputy General Secretary UNISON
Diana Holland — Assistant General Secretary UNITE
Salma Yaqoob — Leader, Respect Party
Faisal Hanjra — President Federation of Student Islamic Societies
Bellavia Ribeiro-Addy — NUS Black Students’ Officer
Sabby Dhalu — Unite Against Fascism
Weyman Bennett — Love Music Hate Racism
Our most fundamental human rights include the rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and cultural expression. It took hundreds of years of struggles, including international and civil wars, to establish the freedoms of religious and cultural expression and these must be vigorously upheld subject only to the proportionate protection of the human rights and freedoms of others.These universal rights must be defended for all groups in society.
In recent months, we have seen increasing instances of discrimination against Muslims, Sikhs and Jews, ranging from discouragement of simply wearing symbols of religious faith or cultural identity to the extreme actions like the demonstration in September outside a place of worship, Harrow Mosque. This occurs against the backdrop of June’s European elections where the racist, extreme right won seats in national elections for the first time in British history.
It is necessary for democrats, of all faiths and none, to come together to defend these fundamental freedoms, which are the cornerstones of liberal and democratic society.
All is not lost, still plenty of culture and art to be found in Tameside.
British People Put Last: £1 million Flood Relief to Cumbria, but £293 million in Foreign Aid in Same Week
It was another £1m for instant relief on top,of the millions already promised for the area, I am not a supporter of this Government but they did act very quickly and Brown cancelled all his engagements to be there
See our new leaflet next week about the work Ky Marland is doing in Staly South and read about his successful campaigns to improve the area.
Utopian, if you're a democrat you won't have any problem with people voting for the Party that supports their rights as the indigenous people of Great Britain. I don't want a multicultural 'wonderland' with no centre or identity and neither do tens of millions of others.
You may not want - but you have got it. So shut and enjoy it or emmigrate to the South Pole.
Give credit, so you're happy about £293 million being given away to foreigners given the appalling state of Britain's finances.
No thanks Aldous, this is MY home and I like it. When people try moving in uninvited and start trying to redecorate to suit themselves it means they want it for themselves and I'll stop them by fair means or foul. Appeasers like you are happy to hand everything over rather than make trouble. 'Tolerance' is simply a mask that hides fear.
TC COULD YOU PLEASE POST THE PICTURE OF THE COMMUNITY PAYBACK TEAM WORKING IN STALYBRIDGE WITH THE LOVELY PICTURE OF OUR GLOURIOUS COUNCILLOR IN STALYSOUTH AND THE WONDERFULL BOYS IN BLUE WATCHING THESE OFFENDERS WORKING THIER SOCKS OFF..... PLEASE
wow what a great picture in this weeks reporter.nice to see the Councilors and the five or so police officer laughing at the offenders whilst they were doing there payback well done Doreen and the gang you have made me proud just wish i was in your voting area . you should have pelted them with bricks. a drain on our community.
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