Pieces are now in place for province’s plan to address repeat violent offenders

The BC Prosecution Service has laid out how the province’s new initiative to address repeat violent offenders will work.

Communications Counsel Dan McLaughlin says there will be five teams, including a northern team that will include the Cariboo, and 12 community hubs established, including one in Williams Lake.

“in a nutshell the teams will consist of 21 dedicated Crown Counsel, along with a similar number of dedicated professional staff, and they’ll provide criminal law advice, prosecution support and service in conjunction with these 12 community hubs established under the Safer Communities Action plan.”

McLaughlin says their prosecutors will operate in each of the five regions.

“Each regional team will have members who live and work in the communities in the region that are familiar with the local issues and concerns, and have established working relationships with local police officers and corrections staff.”

He says those people are now in place and full operations will begin in May.

McLaughlin says they have specific goals.

“Our goal with this initiative is to more efficiently and effectively share information so that we can achieve appropriate outcomes for these individuals, whether it be dealing with bail, the trial process, or sentencing.  Our goal is to get together with the people that are dealing with the enforcement aspects of it, the police agencies, as well with the correctional agencies to deal with identifying appropriate resources to channel these repeat individuals into, in order to reduce recidivism and reduce the cycle of offending.”