Supervisors take over community service

Thursday 07 May 2020

Officers who normally supervise community service are taking on 30 hours of work a week in place of offenders, while the programme is shut down due to covid-19 concerns.

Without the input of those who carry out community service tasks as part of their court-imposed sentence, members of the Probation and Aftercare Team have been lending a hand to ensure certain jobs still get done during lockdown.

Ordinarily in charge of supervising those carrying out community service, parts of the Probation Team have now rolled up their sleeves to maintain charity grounds, community gardens and even Heritage sites. 

Pictured: One of the projects the supervisors have kept going is the community garden at First Tower.

Headed up by Community Service Manager Andy Le Marrec, Probation Service employees have been stationed across the island.

The team have been supporting the Salvation Army since just before the island went into lockdown, by helping to staff the food bank as well as maintaining the charity’s allotment areas in Gorey. 

They have also been sprucing up the Community Garden at First Tower which will be replanted as well as cutting grass at Les Creux Country Park in La Moye on behalf of the Rotary Club.

Probation even worked through the long weekend at La Hougue Bie to maintain the grounds, with plans to help out at Hamptonne this weekend to assist Jersey Heritage.

Their efforts to help the community saw them being featured on Jersey Hospice Care’s ‘Hospice Heroes’ this week. Some of the supervisors have been keeping the grounds and car park neat and tidy since the community service scheme first closed on 28 March.

Commenting on the extra help, Yannick Fillieul, Director of Operations and Business Development at Jersey Hospice Care, said: “Through the Community Service scheme, Jersey Probation have provided us with an important free service, keeping our car park clean, safe and tidy. We are very grateful to Andy and his team for continuing to provide this service, despite the corona virus restrictions.”

The Probation Service say that they focused on organisations who would be most impacted by the loss of the community service provision or areas which would help the wellbeing of islanders. 

On average, 30 hours a week of work is being carried out by the supervisors.

Mike Cutland, Chief Probation Officer, told Express: “The Probation Service always aims to contribute positively to the island. We felt it was important to continue to support the charities and associations for whom we work. When lockdown sadly meant that we had to temporarily suspend our community service scheme, the supervisors asked to continue maintaining the sites whilst observing social distancing. Several have been redeployed as part of the Food Bank initiative where they make deliveries to those most in need. As some restrictions start to be reviewed, we are prioritising plans to recommence our community service scheme in a measured and safe manner.” 

Pictured: Chief Probation Officer Mike Cutland.

In terms of the other aspects of the Probation and Aftercare service, Mr Cutland said that his team are still working and are in regular contact with their clients to check on how they are coping during lockdown.

He explained that this is of particular importance in the case of domestic violence and officers have made sure to contact those who are assessed as being a risk to others. He reported that the re-conviction rate of probation clients has been “extremely low” during the pandemic.

Probation officers continue to attend court hearings remotely and to work with prisoners nearing their release date.