Community Orders: A Good News Story

I vividly remember one of my very first courts as a new winger.

It was a breaches court with dozens of defendants, most of whom hadn't actually bothered to attend, accused of breaching the terms of their community, suspended sentence or post-sentence supervision orders.

Warrants were sought and granted for those that failed to attend, provided we were satisfied at the good service of the summons and absence of any legitimate reason for non-attendance. For each defendant in attendance, the Probation Officer dutifully outlined the circumstances of each alleged breach.

In the majority of cases, those brought before the court were accused of multiple breaches or flagrant disregard of the order they were subject to. The court will have imposed a community or suspended sentence order with the intention of the defendant working with the National Probation Service (or relevant Community Rehabilitation Company) to address their offender behaviour, but in all too many cases that just doesn't happen.

It is depressing the number of cases you hear where the defendant has simply refused to attend for unpaid work, abused their supervising officer or otherwise failed to engage.

It therefore came as a very pleasant surprise to deal with an application by the National Probation Service to revoke a community order because the defendant had made so much progress. Without going into too many specifics, the female concerned had been given a medium level community order for committing an assault.

She had been a troubled young lady, with a lot on her plate. As is often the case, there was a history of substance misuse and there had been breakdown of her family unit. She wasn't heavily convicted. The assault in question signalled an escalation in her offending and her first interaction with the National Probation Service.

The court had ordered her to complete unpaid work and a thinking skills programme and she had grasped the opportunity with both hands. The Probation Officer making the application described how she had attended every appointment on time, well presented, with impeccable manners, a positive attitude and a real desire to succeed.

What's more, she had made her own arrangements to attend counselling to overcome her earlier substance misuse problems. She had sought reconciliation with her family, which had resulted in greatly improved access to her children. She was undertaking training with a definite career path in mind.

It really was heartwarming stuff and we were more than happy to revoke the order and congratulate her on the positive progress she had made. She walked out of the court with a beaming smile and feeling ten feet tall and quite rightly so. I really don't expect to be seeing her back before the court anytime soon and hopefully not at all.

A great example of effective community sentencing. I just wish cases like hers were a bit more common.