Repeat offenders help kids

REPEAT offenders have been helping kids get on their bikes to pass their cycle proficiency test thanks to a rehabilitation workshop in Bellshill.

The Community Payback workshop was officially opened yesterday by Justice Secretary Michael Matheson and North Lanarkshire councillor and convener of social work Barry McCulloch.

The workshop, run by the council’s Restorative Justice team, is for repeat offenders’ serving community payback orders which have been issued with the courts.

Offenders’ involved in the programme are learning to fix old bicycles rescued from recycling centres to put them back on the roads and playgrounds for primary pupils to practise for their cycling proficiency.

Offenders also learn to carry out home improvements and woodwork skills at t he workshop.

Mr Matheson said: “Paying back to the community is at the heart of our approach to community justice.

“Visiting CPO projects first-hand – like those supported by the excellent new Bellshill CPO workshop in North Lanarkshire – shows the benefits they bring, not only to the local community but also to the people doing the unpaid work.

“The evidence clearly demonstrates short prison sentences do little to rehabilitate or reduce reoffending. On the other hand, community sentences make a big difference.

“They give people a chance to break the cycle of offending while ensuring they pay back for the damage their actions have caused.”

The workshop supervisors have undertaken specialist training enabling them to teach and train the offenders in the programme the skills of the trades.

The offenders learn about workshop safety, tools, redecorating, woodwork and teamwork.