Policy, Planning & Development Officer, Community Justice Glasgow
At time of writing the Revised National Strategy for Community Justice has been launched. The Revised Strategy sets the national direction for Community Justice – highlighting key areas for partners to focus on. The Revised Strategy seeks to build on the progress made under the 2016 document. You can CLICK THE PICTURE LINK OR SCAN THE QR CODE BELOW to access the document.
The four national aims or priorities set out in the Revised Strategy are set out in the document below ‘National Strategy for Community Justice – National Aims & Priority Actions’. CLICK ON THE PICTURE LINK OR SCAN THE QR CODE TO ACCESS:
“In the past fifteen years we have made great strides in improving the effectiveness of our justice system – recorded crime remains at one of the lowest levels in nearly 50 years. The previous National Strategy for Community Justice set out a clear vision of a Scotland where people are rightly held to account for their offending, but are supported to be active and responsible contributors to their community. Partners have worked hard over the past five years to help achieve this vision. However, we recognise that there is still work to be done to ensure that we can all live in communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe.
Protecting victims and the public from further harm is our absolute priority. And we see this as being entirely consistent with our aims for community justice – the evidence shows that community-based interventions and sentences can be more effective in reducing reoffending and assisting with rehabilitation than short-term custodial sentences, while protecting the public and robustly managing risk. We firmly believe that while prison will continue to be the right option for some, in many circumstances, keeping individuals out of custody is the best way to prevent further offending, reduce victimisation, and keep our communities safe. We are determined therefore to shift the balance between custodial and community disposals, and to address the fact that Scotland’s prison population is still amongst the highest per capita in Western Europe.”
Our Community Justice Partnership in Glasgow has taken the decision to revise our local Community Justice Outcome Improvement Plan (CJOIP) which is due to end in 2023. The partnership felt that work to revise our current CJOIP was timely in view of the publication of the new strategy and expected publication of a revised Outcomes & Performance Improvement Framework. This work is at a very early stage and we will update on this is next year’s report. Our current CJOIP can be accessed by CLICKING ON THE PICTURE LINK OR SCANNING THE QR CODE BELOW:
