Release date: 16/03/2010
By: Charlie Masson Smith
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020 8871 6173
or email cmassons@wandsworth.gov.uk
Young offenders clear away graffiti
Young offenders have been helping to pay back the community for their crimes by clearing away graffiti from a block of flats in Battersea.
The young people, who are being supervised by the borough's youth offending team (YOT) painted over the graffiti and redecorated the entrance to the block of flats as part of a reparations project.
The work was arranged by the YOT in conjunction with the housing department's graffiti removal team.
The aim was to give these young people the opportunity to give something back to the community and repair some of the harm caused by their offending.
Other similar reparation projects and programmes run by the YOT where young offenders carry out unpaid work include gardening, painting and decorating and support for older people.
The council's spokesman on young people Cllr Kathy Tracey said: "These reparation projects are designed to make young people more aware of the damage they cause local communities and the efforts that have to be put in to repair that damage. For some young people it's a real eye-opener and certainly makes them examine their consciences and re-think their behaviour."
Housing spokesman Cllr Martin D Johnson said: "The idea of graffiti vandals being made to clear away graffiti has a certain poetic justice to it. Hopefully they will learn from the experience and avoid committing offences in the future."
Young people are referred to the YOT by the courts as part of a sentencing option. It is a statutory multi-agency team whose objective is to "prevent offending and re-offending by young people", Divided into three teams, the YOT predominantly works with young people aged between ten and 18 who live in Wandsworth.
ENDS
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The most recent comments made about this article.
good on you to all involved; isn't this absolutely the best way to deal with people; prison is definately not; let everyone involved in crime be made to put something back into the community, short term or long term, even hardend criminals who do have be jailed, part of the ''rehab'' should involve this kind of thing--cheers
aldgate - Roehampton
