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Chief Supt Mike Barton delivered a presentation in relation to a restorative justice initiative being piloted in Preston and Lancaster whereby officers are trained to talk to offenders to raise awareness of the consequences of their actions and how the crime has impacted on others. The aim is to get offenders to acknowledge the impact their crime has had on others and alter offending behaviour. Restorative justice could be applied alongside a prosecution or instead of prosecution depending on the nature of the offence.
This is a pilot, also in Preston, for dealing with young offenders (10 - 17 Years of age) whereby youths themselves sit on a peer panel to agree to an acceptable penalty for their offences. They will be brought face to face with their victims and their peers.
Six community cohesion/question time events are being held throughout the county to improve public confidence in the criminal justice system and give attendees the opportunity to raise issues of concern to them in relation to the criminal justice process. The first is being held in Lancaster on 2 May 2007.
Libby Reed from the CPS is undertaking work on behalf of the Board in relation to Specialist Domestic Violence Courts to ensure Lancashire is compliant with 11 required national standards.
A Strategic Group chaired by ACC Wendy Walker has been set up to implement the Simple, Speedy, Summary Justice requirements by the end of December 2007. This project introduces mechanisms for dealing with cases in the Magistrates' courts more speedily with file content and advance information available for defence prior to first court hearing to enable cases to be dealt with more promptly, avoid adjournments and encourage more guilty pleas. Preston will be the first site to go 'live' in July 2007.
The treatment of mentally disordered offenders throughout the criminal justice process was raised as an issue to be addressed to ensure a corporate approach was being taken not only by the Police during arrest but that also other agencies applied appropriate service provision throughout the criminal justice process. The introduction of a MDO Co-ordinator was raised as had been introduced in Cumbria . Funding opportunities were being explored to enable this post to be advertised.
LCJB members attended an event held by Greater Manchester Criminal Justice Board that gave the public the opportunity to have their say on what sentences they felt should have been given to offenders based on a number of true case scenarios. The true sentence was then identified along with the reasons the sentence was imposed (i.e. underlying circumstances etc). Judges, Magistrates, lawyers etc were in attendance to explain their role within the criminal justice process. We are to arrange a number of similar events in Lancashire the first one hopefully in June 2007 at Preston Crown Court followed by another during Inside Justice Week in November 2007.
The LCJB has introduced a new sub group to deal with internal communications and primarily staff engagement. This group (with representation from all criminal justice agencies) would identify mechanisms to raise awareness of the LCJB and its priorities but also identify how criminal justice agency staff have an input in meeting the Board's targets and keep them informed regarding performance issues.
The LCJB Strategic Aims Leaflet for 2007/08 has now been finalised and this identifies the Board's priorities for 2007/08. This includes a new target area for prisoner licence enforcement.
CJS agencies have agreed to participate in a programme of awareness sessions for the students of Criminology and Forensic Science at UCLAN.
The National Offender Management Service has circulated a draft of the NW Reducing Re-Offending Delivery Plan for consultation. The Plan embeds the work of eight pathways linked to the key factors that contribute to reducing re-offending. The Probation and Prison Service are preparing a joint response. The document is expected to be published in April 2007.
Catherine is currently the County Youth Justice Services Manager for the Lancashire Youth Offending Team but is to take up her new appointment as Locality Head of the Children's Integrated Services for Preston around August-September. She will continue to undertake the role of Vice Chair to the LCJB until that time.
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