Bedfordshire Police, Probation, Courts and other partners believe they have found a way to turn the county’s most prolific offenders away from a life of crime.
The new programme puts non-violent offenders who commit large numbers of burglaries and vehicle crime through an intensive schedule of rehabilitation and punishment to tackle the root causes of their offending.
Called PI, short for Prolific and Other Priority Offenders Intensive, the programme targets serial criminals who would otherwise face a prison sentence. Potential PI offenders are identified by Bedfordshire Police and Probation Trust. However, all final decisions about sentencing and selection on the programme remain the responsibility of Crown Court Judges.
Offenders must admit all their previous crimes and demonstrate a genuine desire to stop offending. If they commit a crime while on PI – or fail to complete it – they will be sent back to court and sentenced for all the crimes they have confessed to. While on PI, offenders will be subject to supervision and monitoring while they undergo rehabilitation such as drug and alcohol treatment and support in gaining employment.
For example
In Hertfordshire, an independent cost/benefit analysis of their Choices and Consequences (C2) programme suggested savings of up to eight times the investment. Based on an average offending rate of 112 crimes per year, the costs to society of one prolific offender committing crime per year is £178,640, the costs of imprisoning an adult for a year is around £45,000 while the C2 scheme costs around £3,000 per offender per year. More importantly the programme has been demonstrated to reduce the numbers of victims for burglaries and other serious acquisitive offences over the long-term.
PI is one of three strands of the recently launched Bedfordshire Integrated Offender Management approach, which works with offenders to look at why they commit crime and help them make changes to lead a crime-free life.
What they say
Linda Hennigan, Chief Executive of Bedfordshire Probation Trust and Chair of Bedfordshire Integrated Offender Management said: โThe public needs a long-term solution to the reduction of crime rather than the vicious cycle of offending, prison, reoffending. PI is a demanding programme that challenges offenders to make difficult lifestyle changes with swift and tough retribution if they donโt."
