Immediate Justice
Swift and visible justice aimed to tackle antisocial behaviour
The Immediate Justice project will ensure people who commit antisocial behaviour or low-level offences are made to clean up local streets, work in soup kitchens or take part in other positive community activities – within days of their offence.
The aim is to show communities in a very visible way that antisocial behaviour is being treated seriously and with urgency, whilst also acting as a deterrent to others.
It will only be available to eligible first-time or low-level offenders and gives them an alternative to going to court or paying fines – by spending a set amount of time repairing the harm they have caused to communities.
Persistent offenders will still be dealt with through robust criminal justice outcomes.
Nottinghamshire is one of ten ‘trailblazer’ areas across the country to receive funding to implement an Immediate Justice scheme.
The project follows the award of £2m from the Home Office to tackle antisocial behaviour and is set to run until the end of March 2025.
To ensure swift action is taken in response to the antisocial behaviour, Immediate Justice placements are to be completed within 48 hours of the Police completing the referral to the service.
Offenders who are referred to the scheme will be supervised by enforcement service Red Snapper, as they go out to carry out work in neighbourhoods across the city and county.
Each placement is likely to be slightly different due to the local geography and needs of the area but types of activities could include cleaning off graffiti, or gardening works such as grass cutting, hedge trimming, dead leaf clearing, litter picking, sign cleaning.
As the scheme continues, communities will receive more of a say over the types of reparation activity and where this activity is required through a community consultation tool which is currently being developed.
Victims affected by the antisocial behaviour or low-level crime will be consulted with to ensure they support the referral and are satisfied with the outcome.
To report antisocial behaviour call Nottinghamshire Police on 101 or contact your local council.
Watch the video linked below to see the scheme in action.
