People's Award 2006

In 2006 the Justice Awards teamed up with the Daily Mirror for the first time to create the People's Award. Features on each of the five finalists appeared in the Daily Mirror newspaper on Monday 20 November. Readers had the chance to vote for who they thought should win the award via a phone-line, and the winner was announced at the Justice Awards ceremony. The Daily Mirror gave £1,000 to the winner to donate to a justice-related charity and a proportion of the cost of the phone calls was donated to Victim Support.

Winner

Noreen Oliver – Founder, Burton Addiction Centre, Staffordshire

Noreen Oliver began her journey working with dependant drug and alcohol users after many years severely dependant on alcohol herself. In 1997 she founded the Burton Addiction Centre (BAC). It was two rented rooms on the first floor of a building in Burton on Trent, funded by Noreen's inheritance money and a £5000 overdraft. A second centre was founded in 2001, and since then the two centres have treated thousands of drug and alcohol users, 80 per cent of whom have been involved with the Criminal Justice System. 66 per cent of clients complete the centres' programme drug and alcohol free and move on to become independent responsible members of the community.

Noreen plans to donate her prize money to the Burton Addiction Centre.

Finalists

Glyn Butterworth – Police Youth Services Officer, West Yorkshire

Glyn is a police youth services officer who works with young offenders and those identified as high risk. He has set up a series of Youth Inclusion Programmes, working with 40 young people at any one time between the ages of eight and 12, identified either as the top 20 offenders or at highest risk of offending in the Shipley and Keighley areas. The activities are designed to build self confidence, self worth and a sense of achievement, and he is desperately keen to never let the young people down. Of those children who left the scheme in 2004/05, only 21 per cent have gone on to re-offend to date.

Colin Davies – Senior Prosecutor, Crown Prosecution Service, Merseyside

The murder of Anthony Walker was a tragedy which demanded a quick and effective response from the Criminal Justice System. Colin has won praise from all sides for the "vast experience, energy, dedication and truly stupendous legal skills" which he brought to every stage of the prosecution process. Equally importantly he brought an innovative approach to the successful joint work between the police investigators and the prosecutors. Within four months of the attack on Anthony. Davies led the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) team, and his work has had a huge impact not only on the family of the victim but on the confidence of the wider community in the Criminal Justice System.

Elaine Holland – Volunteer, Devon

Elaine Holland lived on an estate in Stonehouse near Plymouth where she and neighbours were terrified of a large gang of youths that congregated around the estate openly dealing drugs. Elaine openly reported information to the police, at resident meetings, as a way of showing the other residents that they were not alone in their suffering. As a result of Elaine's action, an interim ASBO without notice was served against the gang ringleader and later a seven year ASBO preventing him from coming back to the area. Following this, Elaine launched the Plymouth Together Action Line (PETALS) in September 2005 at the Jan Cutting Healthy Living Centre to offer residents advice on combating anti-social behaviour.

Debbie Parry – Co-ordinator Wigan Domestic Violence Specialist Court

Debbie Parry, a Senior Crown Prosecutor at Wigan, has been instrumental in the establishment of a specialist domestic violence court there. Together with her colleague, Karen Mitchell, they decided on a pilot scheme that involved training magistrates and their legal advisors as well as members of the probation service and the Witness Service. An evaluation of the pilot showed that there was an increase in guilty pleas of over 10 per cent, the conviction rate increased from 52 per cent to over 60 per cent and there was a significant increase in the confidence of victims. The scheme was such a success that in October 2005 it secured funding as one of only 25 specialist courts in the country.