Prolific Offender Schemes

 Lancashire pioneered this approach to deal with persistent offenders, establishing jointly with Lancashire Police a project combining police surveillance and monitoring of offenders with intensive probation supervision. The original scheme in Burnley, based on a similar approach in Dordrecht in Holland, targeted known prolific offenders who were responsible for a high proportion of burglary and theft crimes. The scheme's success with these offenders is in the co-working of the partner police and probation officers who deal with offenders on the scheme, enabling closest monitoring and intensive supervision and support. Under Probation's supervision of their progress, offenders must attend referral appointments with supporting agencies assisting with issues of drugs/substance misuse, employment, etc. The scheme is backed up with speedy return to court or custody if an offender fails to comply with the scheme.