A brush with the law as offenders spared jail...to do art classes
CRIMINALS are being sentenced to attend art classes in the latest example of Scotland’s ‘soft-touch’ justice system.
Instead of being sent to prison, a growing number of offenders are receiving Community Payback Orders (CPOs) as punishment.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal some are being allowed to repay their debt to society by learning how to draw and paint.
But last night critics said sentencing offenders to classes in oil painting and watercolours was a ‘huge insult to victims of crime’.
The move was highlighted in a recently published report into how CPOs operate in one area.
The North Ayrshire Community Payback Orders annual report for 2016/17 stated that feedback from offenders showed they ‘really enjoyed’ the classes. But a victims’ group questioned yesterday whether the classes were a punishment or a ‘luxury’ treat.
The revelation also raises fresh fears about the SNP’s soft approach to justice, especially amid plans to scrap sentences of less than a year.
The proposal would mean about 10,000 offenders a year who would currently face a jail term – even criminals guilty of serious violent crimes – are handed CPOs instead.
The North Ayrshire report says that as well as art, activities for ‘service users’ – the term used for offenders – include landscaping, building, joinery and gardening.
The document notes the ‘arts and crafts project’ is available for ‘service users who require lighter duties’. It adds: ‘Our unpaid work team organised and presented an art exhibition at the Harbour Arts Centre in Irvine in April 2017.’
The report justified the payback element by pointing out that the sale of artworks from the show had raised £1,000 for a local hospital. North Ayrshire is a big supporter of CPOs, increasing their use by 31 per cent in 2015/16 and crediting them with helping to achieve a 6 per cent reduction in reoffending in the same year – higher than the Scotland average. However, they are set to become far more common across Scotland after Nicola Sturgeon announced plans for a ‘presumption against’ sentences of less than a year.
Scottish Government figures show there were 10,104 prison terms of a year or less in 2016/17. These included two people convicted of murder, 99 guilty of attempted murder or serious assault, and 35 for sexual assaults.
Scottish Conservative Justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘When criminals receive a CPO, victims expect that to involve a degree of rigour and for some public benefit from it. It’s hard to see how these examples fulfil either objective.
‘The SNP wants to scrap jail sentences of less than 12 months, which would mean a huge increase in CPOs. If these CPOs take the form described here, it would be a huge insult to victims of crime.’
David Hines, of the National Victims Association, said: ‘It’s not a punishment. There are victims of crime who would like to go to art classes and don’t have the money.
‘It’s a luxury given to them. I like that they’re raising money for a charity, but it should be a charity that supports victims of crime.’
Umbrella group North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership said its ‘service users’ had received ‘positive recognition’ from the public, which ‘helped improve their confidence and self-esteem’.
The Scottish Government said people given a CPO ‘are almost twice as likely not to be reconvicted as those released from a custodial sentence of 12 months or less’.
‘It’s not a punishment, it’s a luxury for them’