Chris, Your implication is that re-offending rates are so high because the payback work is so menial. You are well and truly wrong on this.Do you really really think that people reoffend more if they do menial and boring work than if they were to walk out of prison? Prison does not work. There are over 86,000 people in prison and roughly only 25,000 of those should be detained for our safety. Banging up more people does not reduce crime. When the prison population stood at 50,000 reoffending rates were hovering around 50%. Today the prison population is 86,000 and reoffending is close to 70%. I say again, prison does not work.The Community Payback scheme is cost effective and has lower reoffending rates for those that do it, because it keeps people in their jobs and homes whilst serving their sentence. Furthermore, Community Payback sentences can be harder than a prison sentence too. Giving somoene a 120 hour Payback sentence, served over 6 months, rather than a week long prison sentence results in not only a longer sentence, but a lower reoffending rate too.Did you feel safe when you were around them? You probably did: clearly you got close enough to hear them chatting and texting without a problem! So why would you want to put the same person into prison at a cost of £130 a day? Who will benefit from the incarceration more? You or him? My money is on you. If you are moaning about the type of work they have to do, then write to the Ministry of Justice or Daily Mail with your complaint.
Ben Owen ● 5539d