West Yorkshire Criminal Justice Board
West Yorkshire Criminal Justice Board (WYCJB) goes from strength to strength and celebrated its fifth anniversary on 1 April this year.
The Board was established in April 2003 and aims to transform the way the criminal justice system works in West Yorkshire. It is made up of Chief Officers from the Police, Probation Service, Courts, the Crown Prosecution Service, Youth Offending Teams and Prisons. The aim is to bring more offenders to justice, deliver real improvements for victims and the local community and to improve links between criminal justice agencies.
Current Initiatives
Criminal Justice Simple Speedy Summary (CJ SSS)
This initiative is aimed at speeding up summary justice in the Magistrates Court and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of case management overall. The intention is to deliver a criminal justice system that is:
Simple - dealing with some specific cases transparently by way of warning, caution or some effective remedy to prevent re-offending without the court process.
Speedy - those cases that need the court process will be dealt with fairly but as quickly as possible.
Summary - a much more proportionate approach still involving due process - dealing with cases during the same week.
This project has been rolled out across West Yorkshire throughout 2007/08. West Yorkshire was the first LCJB area to be fully live across the full LCJB area and West Yorkshire has also implemented the timeliness system within the youth courts. This project will be completed by the end of March 2008 and will be mainstream activity for West Yorkshire LCJB.
Condtional Cautioning
The conditonal cautioning scheme established under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, enables the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in consultation with the Police, to offer a caution with a condition or conditions attached. Condtional Cautioning provides the Police and CPS with a new disposal for dealing with low level offenders who admit the offence and who, if prosecuted by the Magistrates Court, would probably have received a nominal fine, an order to pay compensation or a condtional discharge. If condtions are not complied with, the offender can be prosecuted for the original offence.
Community Justice Court
Community Justice is a unique initiative that brings the justice system closer to the community it serves. Sentencing focuses on offenders making amends to the community but also provides a range of support services to tackle the root causes of an offenders behaviour.
The first community justice projects - the Community Justice Centre, Liverpool and the Salford Community Justice Initiative - have been up and running since Autumn 2005. On the success of these areas, the Government decided to develop the initiative and Bradford was chosen as one of eleven new projects across England and Wales.
The Bradford Community Justice Court has been hearing adult and youth cases from the Bowling & Barkerend, Little Horton and City (University) areas of the city since Wednesday 27th June 2007. The initiative hears cases normally dealt with by a magistrates' court, but will focus on those crimes that are identified by the community as causing most concern.
The aim of the project is to:
Make the court and criminal justice agencies more responsive to the local community by ensuring that community needs are listened to, acted upon and crucially so the issues do not re- occur.
Break cycles of re-offending through a problom solving approach.
Ensure offenders comply with court orders and to make compliance highly visible to the local community.
Engaging Local Communities
This project aims to improve public confidence by strengthening links between the courts, magistrates and judges with the communities they service and to have increased awareness of the impact of offending on local people and an understanding of the social context in which crime occurs, whilst preserving judicial independence. This project is currently at strategy stage and seeks to complement the ongoing work by the Police/CPS and LCJBs on community engagement. Merseyside, South Yorkshire and London are piloting this approach.
Intermediaries
The national provision of intermediaries for all witnesses who are eligible under section 16 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 will provide access to justice for the most vulnerable members of society. By virtue of their vulnerability people who qualify for an intermediary are more likely to be targeted by offenders and the use of intermediaries may bring more of this type of offender to justice. West Yorkshire will be live with this project at the end of March 2008.
Schools Education Pack
This is a local project run by the LCJB Victims and Witnesses Group. An educational DVD and resource pack is being produced for teachers of the citizenship GCSE. The pack follows a victims and witnesses journey through the criminal justice system and highlights all of the tough decisions that need to be made but also all the support that is available to them. This project should be completed by the end of March 2008.
Victim Support
This project aims to support more victims, more quickly, through a range of improved services using a national business model and case management system. The project will build on the success of the Victim Care Units pilot in Nottingham, Salford and North Yorkshire and will develop a service that is tailored to victim needs. The project is live and rolls out throughout the Yorkshire and Humber region will be in May 2008.
Witness Charter
The Witness Charter builds on the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime by setting out the standards of care all witnesses can expect to receive at all stages of the criminal justice process. Beacon areas will have commenced implementation by the end of March 2008. Subject to evaluation, all other LCJBs will be expected to have commenced implementation by October 2008.
WYCJB in the Community
A number of events have also been organized to bring West Yorkshire Criminal Justice Board closer to the communities it serves.
Click here to see what we did last year.