The males should be made to wear pastel-pink tabards with the word SILLY CRIMINAL on the back. The female tabards could be done in the latest unfashionable colour in a zebra pattern with the same words.

I find this community service thing a laugh. It does not punish the offender. Much of the work they do is already done by volunteers without a criminal record. For most of them it is a good day out socialising with like-minded people. Their only hardship is getting up in the morning.

Shackles should be the order of the day and early starts and late finishes.But this will neverv work while we have a country full of bleeding heart liberals.We are on the downward path to anarchy we treat criminals better than we treat our children....

This isn't going to work! If law breakers can't be bothered with the ins and outs of right and wrong, then their not gonna be bothered about wearing hi-vis bibs! Law makers need to come into the real word. Society has changed. Criminals are no longer bothered about custodial sentences, fines or community punishments. Prison is just treated as a short break, fines can be paid at £2 a week and community sentences are treated as a get together.

could we also do the same for benefits scroungers who sit at home and do nothing all day.

after all they are draining the system of money in the first place. make them work for this money.

then they may realise they can actually get more money if the work for a living instead of expecting it to be given to them for nothing!

and at the same time some local community projects might actuallly get done too!

Image is everything to these people, so to get them out ther in pink jackets picking up litter will do more to put them off then getting a slap on the wrist and a fine.

Quote:
"Ms Smith said: "I am grateful to all of the 60 pioneer areas for signing up to take action to open up the criminal justice system so that the public can see the tough consequences for those that break the law."

We would rather not see then - we would like em locked up!
Apart from Ace, he would like suspended sentences - but they won't bring hanging back.

Complete and utter tosh....this will never happen, one of the offenders will cry its against his/hers human rights to wear one, some smart ass lawyer will take the Government on and they will win, just cos EU say so

What about building more high-visibilty prisons with hard labour a daily part of the regime? I don't want to walk down the street and see flurescent crimminals.

The Hi Viz jackets should have the word "Scum" on the back so we can differentiate them from legitimate, hard working members of society.

I'm no liberal do-gooder but there is something very sick and sinister about New Labour. Schemes like this, combined with stuff like the ID card and ever more snooping on the population show New Labour up to be a nasty, suspicious, vidictive, authoritarian regime.

it wouldn't surprise me if these offenders were collected in taxis and taken from their homes to the places of "work" The taxis of course paid for out of the taxes I pay to this government as a thank you for letting me work in this country.

Ive seen these community workers in my local area sitting around doing very light work laughing and joking and having a smoke with the ""Guys"" Its just a bloody few hours out for them,Its time for real hard work and long hours.Ive seen boy scouts working harder on "Bob a job".

This must surely contravine the Human Rights act!

It sounds like a step in the right direction, although I do hope that as another poster has said - the HiViz jackets are in shades of pink and violet but would also go as far to ask that their photos (in the aforesaid clothing) are printed on a regular basis in the local newspapers and also put onto an dedicated internet site for all to see.

I'm all for getting the petty criminals out putting something back into society but I also know that they won't be expected to do something which has a slight element of possible danger because of the risk of compo claims. The "criminals" should also only be those who have perhaps not paid bills or debts etc not violent people, calculate the value of the debt against the hours of work and make them work until it's all paid back.

Are we going to see rich criminals, like the bankers behind the recent near-collapse of the UK banking system, partaking in a bit of this?

I wouldn't BANK on it....

the seeker, what about our human rights?? or dont we have any ? if you do the crime do the time.

If they are run like the chain gangs in the southern US like Mississippi I'm all for it.
But if it's a day out with the other morons well don't bother.

This must surely contravine the Human Rights act! - The Seeker, Eccles

if this is the case then its time to give up on life.

the world is a rotten place with all the EU rules we're having to abide by.

I have seen these crimbos' turn up to clear up muck in their designer clothes and shoes, Dumb. I hope these bibs are anti dribble it saves the babies staining the bibs with their food, ga ga.

Jack Straw, Pink jackets.

As well as paying back their community with hard work why not make them pay back their victims for the damages ect.Like if they steal a car any damage to that car is paid for by the criminal not the owners insurance.This way justice will be done rather than the victim and the insurance company..

I imagine those that settled on these jackets, as a punishment, did so because they would shudder at the prospects of wearing one, probably because it would clash with their handbags. These decision makers have no idea how the minds of these criminals work, a high viz jacket will not deter crime, nor will the outward bound jolly they take part in whilst networking between other scum.