Restorative justice

I have visited recently the Northumbria Probation Trust. They have a pilot project on implementing restorative justice and community justice approaches. Their preliminary analysis shows a considerable positive impact of these approaches. For example, it indicates that the rate of re-offending is reduced by over 10% compared to other approaches.

I intend to increase the collaboration with community and voluntary organisations involved in restorative justice and community justice approaches, to show that there is an alternative to issuing a large number of ASBOs, just to look ‘tough on crime’.

I think that getting involved people committing low level crime into their communities and making them understand the unpleasant consequences of their behaviour can reduce the rate of re-offending and can improve the social integration of these people. It can also help to resolve their underlying problems that are likely to be the source of their criminal behaviour.

As a PCC I will not have direct influence on operational policing. However, I will focus on facilitating information sharing and collaboration between the police and partner organisations, including voluntary and community organisations, through the setting of priorities and influencing startegy and policies. Delivering effective restorative justice and community-based justice depends very much on good collaboration and information sharing between the police and the partner organisations (Probation Trust, health care trusts, voluntary organisations, etc.). I hope that if I am elected as PCC I can have a positive impact on these and lead to a wider scale of use of restorative justice and community-based justice.