10:07am Friday 12th March 2010
By Elizabeth Pears
EX-CONVICTS will be targeted by a new programme launched in Haringey to prevent reoffending.
The Haringey Reducing Reoffending Programme (HARRP) was launched at a conference, held at Alexandra Palace on Wednesday.
It was attended by organisations involved in the criminal justice system, members of the public and representatives from the private, voluntary and community sectors.
Councillor Nilgun Canver (Labour/St Ann's), cabinet member for enforcement and safer communities, who chaired the conference, said: "Reoffending has a high social and financial cost.
"Victims suffer and society has to pick up the cost of tackling an offender's behaviour.
"It's clear there is a need for agencies and community representatives to work together and to provide an opportunity for individual offenders to turn their lives around."
A network of organisations is being set up to provide a uniformed service to offenders and ex-offenders.
It will be dubbed the Haringey Reducing Reoffending Network.
Speakers at the conference included Bobby Cummines, executive director of Unlock, the national asssociation of reformed offenders, who spoke about releasing the positive potential of offenders and Joe Benmore, a senior probation officer, who talked about successfully resettling offenders back into society.
Reverend Nims Obunge spoke about dealing with reoffending by inmates at Belmarsh Prison.
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