NWTRA SPLIT ON NEIGHBOURHOOD JUSTICE PANELS

Part of the Government’s  “Restorative Justice” strategy:- Home Secretary Theresa May is to announce plans next month (May 2012) to set up ‘neighbourhood justice panels’ in England and Wales. The panels will allow local residents to haul vandals, hooligans and other offenders before them, make them say sorry and force them to pay compensation or repair any damage they have caused. The aim is to give local people a chance to administer ‘homemade’ justice in their own area – bypassing formal courts, judges and magistrates – and shame offenders into seeing the error of their ways.The scheme, which has strong support from David Cameron’s director of strategy, Steve Hilton, has been unofficially dubbed ‘vigilante lite’ by some Government advisers. But Police Minister Nick Herbert stressed that the scheme was not a form of vigilantism. He said: ‘We are most definitely not encouraging people to take the law into their own hands, but we do want them to get involved in law and orderat a local level in a meaningful and responsible way.’  A total of 15 new neighbourhood justice panels will be announced by the Home Office, adding to three that are already operating in Sheffield, Somerset and Norfolk.  The Government aims to establish street courts in every part of England and Wales.  Mr Herbert believes that local justice is a vital element of the Coalition’s attempt to preventa repeat of last summer, when thousands of rioters, some barely teenagers, caused havoc in their own neighbourhoods. Mr Herbert stated : ‘We have seen that you cannot have public order if the public is not involved. ‘People are fed up with hooligans and vandals getting away with little more than a rap over the knuckles. ‘They want tough justice administered in their own neighbourhood so they can see people being brought to book.‘Justice is too remote and has to be brought back to street level. If people commit a crime in their neighbourhood, they should be held to account in their neighbourhood, made to apologise in public in their neighbourhood and forced to put things right in their neighbourhood.‘Neighbourhood justice panels can transform law and order locally and make ordinarypeople feel they have a voice in tackling low-level crime.’Mr Herbert made no apology for the element of ‘humiliation’ involved in the street courts.He said: ‘I see nothing wrong in shaming people who have daubed a home with graffiti, or who have torn down a fence ona drunken rampage.   ‘If we are to have any chance of dealing with the root cause of the kind of crime we saw in the summer riots, we have to intervene early and locally. ‘They should be required to say sorry face-to-face with their victims, pay compensation or be forced to repair any damage – in public. They won’t look so tough in front of their mates any more. I’ve seen it in operation and it has a salutary effect.Mr Herbert says that many offenders likely to be dealt with by street courts are currently let off by magistrates with a caution or an on-the-spot fine. ‘In practical terms, that can be pretty meaningless,’ he added. The panels will be made upof local residents, who will bevetted by the authorities to make sure they are responsible members of the community, and supervised by the police. The hearings will be held in community centres and other local venues. They will deal only with offenders who have admitted their guilt. Those who deny any crime will continue to be dealt with by magistrates’ courts or crown courts. Many NWTRA  members  have voiced their concerns over this move for a variety of reasons.  Is this simply more liberalisation of sentencing policy  being supported by a Tory minister ?  Why only “sentence” those who have already pleaded Guilty said another NWTRA member—surely they will now all plead not guilty to receive a simple caution at court  rather than face local victims in their own communities. NWTRA believes that Restorative Justice  should be used sparingly and is only appropriate  for young first time offenders who deserve a second chance, those with more then one previous conviction   should feel the full force of the law, via the courts . Sharia Law is another consideration in some inner city areas, we must be very careful to avoid any further differentiation of religious law / common law/legal process whatever we call it.