Prisons minister promotes restorative justice schemes

Restorative justice - where offenders compensate the community for their crimes - will be a key plank of the new National Offender Management System (NOMS), the government said today.

The creation of NOMS, which brings together the Prison and Probation Services, is designed to cut re-offending rates and increase rehabilitation and pay back to the community. The system was announced on 6 January 2004.

In a fundamental overhaul of the correctional services, the new body will manage all offenders, whether they are serving sentences in prison, in the community or both. NOMS will seek to ensure that progress made in prison is followed through in the community and that cutting re-offending is a "priority".

Opening the National Probation Service's international conference on reducing re-offending and cutting crime, Prisons and Probation Minister Paul Goggins said: "We are embarking on the next stage of reform with a renewed emphasis on less serious offenders paying back to their communities for the crimes they have committed.

"Sometimes this will be through the use of fixed penalty fines and sometimes through other forms of reparation, such as unpaid work.

"This does not mean the government is going soft on crime. We are very clear that the most dangerous criminals will go to prison for as long as necessary to protect the public."

(gmcg)