Offenders on court-ordered community sentences have been diligently restoring the grounds of St John the Baptist Church in Midsomer Norton this month. Carrying out supervised, unpaid work, the team has undertaken vital maintenance to preserve the nearly 900-year-old Medieval churchyard.
Their restoration efforts have included clearing invasive brambles, pruning overgrown trees, and leveling burial plots to return the area to its former dignity. Hilary Denning, Church Warden at St John’s, expressed gratitude for the team’s support: “We had a large spoil heap of soil obstructing the centre of the churchyard, which needed urgent removal. This willing group worked hard to restore the churchyard to a peaceful and attractive place once more. Recently, they have also been clearing the bramble tangles along the margins, making a visible difference in our community. We are very thankful.”
St John the Baptist Church is a Grade II listed building with a rich heritage, serving as the resting place for soldiers from both World War I and II.
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Community Payback is a form of unpaid work ordered by courts as part of a wider community sentence. It allows offenders to repay their debt to society by contributing positively to the communities they have previously harmed. Depending on the sentence, courts can mandate between 40 and 300 hours of unpaid work. Across the UK, this amounts to up to five million hours delivered annually.
His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) promotes Community Payback as an alternative to incarceration to help reduce prison overcrowding—a pressing issue in UK men’s prisons, which operated at over 99% capacity in 2024. Overcrowding has been linked to increased violence among inmates and staff, according to the Ministry of Justice.
To address these challenges, HMPPS plans to expand probation services and build 14,000 new prison places by 2028, along with a 45% increase in investment into probation.
For those interested in supporting this effort, opportunities to supervise unpaid work can be found through HMPPS’s careers portal, offering a chance to make a real difference both for offenders and communities alike.