Aberdeen social work boss defends community service as punishment

AN ABERDEEN social work boss today said a community service sentences are not a soft option for criminals. And Aberdeen City Council’s manager of criminal justice insisted the punishment was shown to work.

Mrs Simpson said: “I believe in most people’s capacity to change. For most people I think this can help reduce offences.

“It is intended as a punishment, but it is also something that has to benefit the community. Quite a few of the people we see don’t have jobs – only about 30% are employed,” she said.

The city council’s criminal justice team prepares 2,700 reports on offenders every year.

But only about 30% are recommended to go on a community service order.

Jobs done in the city by people on community service orders have included picking up rubbish at Torry Battery, helping older people on trips to the supermarket and decorating council homes.

And conviction rates show there is more chance of a criminal reoffending if they have been in prison.

The service was criticised earlier this year after it emerged offender George Thompson, 56, had been put on a waiting list to carry out community service. He had completed less than three hours of a 280-hour order.

But Mrs Simpson, who wrote a letter to the court explaining a “catalogue of errors” in Thompson’s case, said: “That was a mistake.

“We have systems in place to reduce the likelihood of that happening again.”