The Youth Offending Team in Gateshead brings together staff from Police, Probation, Education, Health, Housing, CAMHS and Social service to tackle youth crime.
They tackle offending by children and young people aged between 10 and 18, by working with them to reduce and prevent offending, intervening early and helping young offenders make amends for their behaviour through a range of community-based reparation projects.
Reparation projects include litter picking, conservation work, graffiti removal, painting local underpasses and community centres, and bike schemes for local charities. Victims are given the option of confronting their offender and telling them how the crime affected them.
A Reparation co-ordinator at the YOT and has seen some remarkable transformations. She said, "Putting people in prison should be the very last option. That way they get to mix with offenders that are more prolific and can come out even worse than they went in. Everybody should to be given an opportunity to learn from their mistakes. Through our work they have the chance to make amends."
More information on the team’s work from the point of view of::
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