"He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it." Seneca "They're used to putting six million pounds into something and the community still hate the police. Our project has cost sixty thousand and has achieved more than projects costing six million." Cllr Jill Shortland, Somerset County Council, on the dilemmas facing the Home Office when it comes to cutting crime.
Georgiana (not her real name) was drinking in one of the noisier pubs in Chard when she looked up and saw her boyfriend walk in with another woman. She had drunk a considerable amount that night, and she dealt with the incident by smashing a bottle over his head. It was the kind of rowdy incident of minor thuggery that happens in many towns on a Saturday night, and which never comes to court. In this case, Georgiana's boyfriend refused to press charges, and in almost every other community in Britain, that would have been that. But in the Somerset town of Chard, she was referred instead to the innovative community justice panel. After all, Georgiana's behaviour had not just affected her boyfriend. There were the other customers in the pub whose evening had been disrupted. There was the couple who ran the pub who had to clear up the blood and glass. There were the police and emergency services as well. The community justice panel covers Chard and Ilminster, and is made up of a network of volunteers who live nearby, aged between 21 and 83. The panel's co-ordinator Valerie Keitch visited Georgiana, and then in the hearing the chair asked key questions - developed by restorative justice programmes in the USA - like 'who do you think has been affected by your actions?' Georgiana's boyfriend and the pub managers were there too, and at the end of the hearing, all those involved signed an 'Acceptable Behaviour Contract' (ABC), which Keitch calls "a conference agreement with a bit of legal bite". As part of this contract, Georgiana had to spend three weekend evenings collecting glasses in the pub, and this turned out to be a transformative experience. From behind
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crime how Chard brought justice home