GRAFFITI NEDS PUT TO WORK

Glasgow,Scotland,UK

By Dave King

Aug 13 2004

McConnell's crime crackdown

NEDS will be forced to work for free in a new punishment to combat anti-social behaviour.

They will have to dig pensioners' gardens, tidy up the area, tackle landscaping or other tasks.

Graffiti and yob behaviour will be answered by new reparation orders handed down by sheriffs for a wide range of low-level crime.

The long-standing community service orders will continue to be used for more serious crimes as an alternative to prison.

But the community reparation orders are intended to hit the culprits behind nuisance offences that blight neighbourhoods and make people's lives a misery.

They will have to work for up to 100 hours unpaid under the scheme announced by First Minister Jack McConnell yesterday. The new orders were introduced as part of the Executive crackdown on crime and part of the anti-social behaviour legislation introduced earlier this year.

McConnell, speaking in Dundee, said the orders would force neds to repay a debt to the communities they have damaged.

He said evidence suggests such punishments are more likely to stop re-offending.

He added: 'If the offender fails to pay their full debt to the community, they will face further punishment. This is a smart option, not a soft option.

'The minority of people who bring misery to their community must stop.

'We are on the side of decent, hard-working people who for too long have been the victims of anti-social behaviour.'

The scheme will be piloted in Dundee, Inverness and Greenock.

McConnell added: 'It will allow the courts to say that if you take something from your community then we will make you give something back.'

But Tory Justice spokeswoman Annabel Goldie said: 'If jail is the right sentence for any criminal, that is where they must be sent.