Press Association
Thursday February 9, 2006 6:53 PM
Criminals on community sentences could be forced to help prepare the Olympic Park in London, it has been announced.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the number of hours of unpaid work carried out by offenders will double to 10 million by 2011, the year before the international sporting tournament takes places in Stratford, east London.
"We hope this will include an important contribution towards the work necessary to prepare for the Olympic Games," said a Home Office report outlining the Government's strategy for dealing with offenders.
The 2012 project will see a run-down 500-acre site in the Lower Lea Valley transformed into a world class sporting venue, including an 80,000 seater Olympic stadium. Overall spending on the massive scheme will top £3 billion.
The Home Office also proposed encouraging criminals to get involved in renovating homes across the country which would then be available to them and local communities.
A Home Office spokesman said: "We will be discussing with a range of partners the opportunities for 'community payback' schemes presented by the 2012 Olympic Games. However, there are no plans for offenders to take on the work of professional builders."
A spokeswoman for the Interim Olympic Delivery Authority said: "We will look at the Home Office report and assess it, however it is too premature to decide on resourcing at this stage."
Mr Clarke said he believed the prospect of tougher community sentences involving many hours of unpaid work would be a "frightening" deterrent for criminals. "Unpaid work is the core of it all," he said.
"If you have to work rather than hang around in a prison cell I think that is tougher. I actually believe that work is virtuous in this sense."
The five year strategy would aim to reduce the overall numbers in prison, particularly offenders currently serving short jail terms, with mental health problems, foreign nationals and those on remand.
