London, Sep 19 (IANS) Concerned over reports of attacks on its staff looking after the offenders sentenced to community service, the British government plans to hire retired soldiers to handle the task.
There have been several reports of staff being attacked or threatened by offenders doing unpaid work as part of the ‘soft touch’ -sentences. Cases of convicts being targeted by rival gangs were also reported, according to the Daily Express.
The government is planning to privatise the -system, run by the prob-ation service, and recruit Afghanistan and Gulf War veterans to form the central plank of a new policy.
Officials believe they can save up to 20 million pounds a year by offering retired sergeant majors and other non-commissioned officers the minimum wage of just below 6 pounds an hour, because they are already receiving pensions.
A Whitehall source said: ‘The dilemma is how to save money by cutting wages but still have experienced staff who can do a highly responsible job.’
‘The use of ret-ired army sergeant majors is seen as an inspired idea -bec-ause they would warm to the task, have the expertise and be able to afford to work for less.
‘Also there have been some shocking reports of violence and intimidation -towards probation service staff currently doing the job,’ the source said, adding: ‘Men who have survived Afghanistan and the Gulf Wars will be an entirely different matter.’
Three companies have already been approved by the ministry of justice to tender for contracts to run the service.
Recruiting the army veterans would help strengthen the ‘soft touch’ sentencing in the country which currently sees 55,000 offenders a year doing up to 240 hours of unpaid work.
The government also hopes their -experience, especially in coping with the traumas of action and tragedy in Iraq and Afghanistan, will help them control and motivate young criminals.
However, the probation service, which runs community service, is opposed to privatisation and believes the scheme is an insult to retired army staff.
Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said: ‘Community service, or unpaid work as it is now called, has been successfully run by the probation service for 34 years. Privatising to save costs, using former soldiers on minimum wages, is not the answer. It would be exploitative.’
Community service was established in 1976 as an alternative to custody, with a third of those sentenced being given unsupervised work. The other two-thirds are supervised in work groups of up to eight with a supervisor employed at 8.50 pounds an hour.
The new plans would see individual placements scrapped and group sizes raised to 12 or more to save costs and increase profit potential.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘The coalition government is also looking at how private and voluntary sector providers can get involved in running rehabilitation services to make them tougher for criminals and better value for the taxpayer.’
–Indo-Asian New Service
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