Enforcement
Any offender who misses an appointment or fails to comply with a community order is taken back to court and can be re-sentenced and sent to prison - known as a 'breach'.
Probation staff clearly set out the rules to offenders at the start of their order. Offenders must not:
Miss appointments or sessions without a valid reason
Attend under the influence of drink or drugs
Re-offend
Be offensive, violent or unco-operative.
Breaking any of these rules constitutes a breach. Breaching a court order is an offence in itself which can result in a separate sentence
Effective enforcement reinforces the message that community orders are not a "soft option".
Licences and recall to prison
Nottinghamshire Probation Trust also supervises offenders released on licence from prison - meaning the offenders is effectively serving the rest of their sentence in the community under licence to a probation officer.
Licences have a number of standard conditions relating to being of good behaviour, not committing further offences, reporting to the probation officer, notifying any change of address and so on. Depending on risk levels posed by the offender, further conditions may be imposed such as residence restrictions, bans from certain areas and an obligation to complete specified programmes.
The conditions of licences are strictly enforced and contraventions of the rules - could mean an offender being recalled to prison straightaway.
There are two types of recall:
Emergency recall - The application process is completed within two hours and arrest should be enforced within 48 hours.
Standard recall - The application process is completed within 24 hours and arrest should be enforced within 96 hours.
When the process has been completed, the Early Release and Recall section notifies the local police who arrest the offender. Once arrested, the offender has a chance to appeal against the recall.
Once the offender is back in jail, he or she either completes the prison sentence, or may be considered for re-release on licence.
