The Youth Offending Team in Gateshead brings together staff from Police, Probation, Education, Health, Housing 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 tidying up parks, church grounds and school gardens or decorating community centres and other facilities. Victims are given the option of confronting their offender and telling them how the crime affected them.
The Team has enjoyed huge success since it began in 2002. New figures show:
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offences by young people have reduced by over 22%;
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number of young people offending has dropped by 34%;
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8% fewer young people have re-offended compared with previous years, exceeding the national target of 5%.
Racel Lacey is reparation co-ordinator at the YOT and has seen some remarkable transformations. He said: "Putting people in prison should be the very last option. That way they get to mix with more prolific offenders and can come out even worse than they went in.
Everybody has got to be given an opportunity to learn from their mistakes. Through our work they have the chance to make amends."
More information on the teams work form the point of view of:
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