Meet the offenders cleaning canals in the West Midlands as an alternative to prison

As the prison overcrowding crisis shows no sign of abating and the debate rages over early releases, an initiative in the West Midlands offers an alternative to custodial sentences.

The Guardian was offered rare access to the project, under which, instead of being sent to prison, convicted offenders work on the improvement of waterways and green spaces around Smethwick. It is a small part of the community payback scheme, which in total clocked up an estimated 5m hours across England and Wales in the last year.

Community payback is not suitable for everyone but covers a wide range of adult offending and can be included as part of suspended sentences. The Sentencing Act, which received royal assent in January, introduces a presumption for courts to suspend short custodial sentences of 12 months, which will mean more offenders carrying out community-based punishments.

On the day the Guardian visited the Smethwick project last month, the temperature was already in the high 20s by 9.30am when the participants arrived at the canal for a day of strimming and cutting back overgrown vegetation, and clearing beer cans, plastic bags, bottles and condoms from the towpath and the canal itself.

Among them was Steve Warmer, a 54-year-old with a painful hip, dressed in a grey tracksuit, who was recently convicted of an offence that can attract a fine, a driving ban and up to six months in prison. As two of his fellow participants were given nets to trawl the canal for rubbish and thick, green duckweed, Warmer was handed a picker and the first of many black rubbish bags.

Warmer, a factory worker from Dudley, said he was “the last one standing [alive]” out of his group of friends. “I actually enjoy this work,” he said. “It gives me knowledge of life and other people.”

The aim of community payback is to combine punishment with rehabilitation, and Warmer added: “Me and my wife now litter pick in our own street.”

Not everyone working at the canal was as positive as Warmer, who had completed 126 of 250 hours of a community payback sentence. In the hot weather, the work was particularly demanding, with plenty of water breaks needed as the temperature rose further in the afternoon.

Courts can order between 40 and 300 hours of community payback, to be completed within a specific timeframe. Offenders must work up to 28 hours each week over three or four days if they are unemployed. If they are employed, it will be organised around their working hours. Failure to comply without reasonable excuse can result in enforcement action and a return to court.

The supervisor at the Smethwick project on the day Warmer was there was Mo Ghafoor, who spent 10 years as a corporate banker and whose responsibilities now included driving the van that transported the offenders and equipment to the site.

“This is 100% more fulfilling’ he said. “I used to help businesses with profit but I was just a voice on the phone. Here I make a difference in the heart of my own community. I help my own mental health and that of others, the community and individuals.”

Other forms of community payback, formerly known as community sentences, include removing graffiti, decorating public places and buildings such as community centres, and planting trees. Anyone can nominate a project for the scheme, provided it benefits the local community, does not take paid work away from others, and doesn’t make a profit for anyone.

Among the offenders who will spend less time in prison and more time in the community as a result of the Sentencing Act are burglars, shoplifters and criminals convicted of assault.

The latest statistics, from July to September 2024, show that adults released from custody with sentences of less than 12 months had a reoffending rate of 68.2%, compared with 22.9% for sentences of 12 months or more.

While critics might see community payback as a soft sentencing option, it is not a view shared by Ghafoor. “We look at the individual to whom it gives a structure to their life,” he said. “It often breaks a negative cycle and changes their mindset, and therefore brings reoffending down.”

Reporting from The Guardian contributed to this story.