Offenders freed from jail will be forced to take jobs to stop them returning to a life of crime, Nick Clegg said today.
The Deputy Prime Minister announced that inmates would be "met at the prison gates" by work programme officials in a bid to find jobs for them in a move aimed at ending the "dismal cycle of repeat crime" - and would face sanctions if they refused to co-operate.
Mr Clegg claimed it would be a "tough process so that they find work and stay on the straight and narrow". But he was unable to say whether they would be forced to return to jail if they refused to take part in the work scheme. Amid scepticism over how the programme would work, his aides could not say which employers would be willing to take on the freed prisoners.
Mr Clegg also confirmed that convicted rioters and looters will have to join clean-up gangs in neighbourhoods that they destroyed. He said: "In every single one of the communities affected there will be community payback schemes, riot payback schemes, where you will see people in visible orange clothing making up the damage done."
The Liberal Democrat leader added that the Government would "take time" to decide whether to dock the benefits of rioters.
