West Yorkshire Probation in the news
West Yorkshire Probation aims to publicise and promote the work it does through the West Yorkshire media.
A full list of all the coverage is available on the WEST YORKSHIRE PROBATION IN THE News page.
Some of the recent coverage includes a feature in the Guardian (date tbc) about the work of West Yorkshire Probation.
We have also arranged two features on regional television. One on Calendar focused on the success of Restorative Justice in Bradford and featured a conference between an offender and a victim. Both participants agreed that the process was very successful. For the victim, she met the person who burgled her home and learned more about him and could draw a line under the crime. The offender saw the impact of his crime on the people affected which shook him and led him to promise to turn his back on crime.
The Bradford Telegraph and Argus also inclued two features on the same topic in early May.
A second piece on Look North (which also featured in the Yorkshire Post and BBC Radio Leeds) looked at a group of offenders who are working with West Yorkshire Probation to develop a habitat for honey bees on Tarn Moor. The offenders are learning new skills and doing the hard work of building fences, laying hedges and building dry stone walls. The project has been so successful that a group of the offenders are planning to set up a dry stone walling business together when the project ends.
There was also a series of feature articles in the Yorkshire Evening Post (24 - 28 January).
These included an editorial on Community Payback: "There is a general assumption that community payback is an easy option for offenders.
"So we hope our account of a day spent undercover with a Community Payback team in Leeds helps to dispel that myth, along with a few others. What's clear is that those who take part in the scheme feel a strong sense of achievement. Who knows, it might just convince a few repeat offenders that they are capable of making a contribution to society and cause them to change their behaviour.
"As for being the easy option, working outside in all weathers doing jobs no one else wants to do for absolutely nothing is a lot harder than sitting in prison.
"Then there are the benefits to us and the places we live. People sentenced to carry out the work in our communities complete 450,000 hours of unpaid work a year. With councils facing severe cutbacks, that's a valuable �2.6m worth of work we're getting for free. All in all the arguments in favour of Community Payback add up." Yorkshire Evening Post editorial, 25 January 2011.
Read more on the WEST YORKSHIRE PROBATION IN THE News pages.
