Preston woman spent years helping to keep the public safe

Helen Codd, has received a Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements’ (MAPPA) Award after spending seven years as a lay adviser to the Lancashire MAPPA Strategic Management Board.

The group looks after sexual, violent and dangerous offenders, including registered sex offenders, once they leave custody and are released into the community,

Helen, is a professor of law and social justice working at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and has now served the maximum time allowed in the post.

Her role as an adviser involved attending Board meetings, as well as a range of others where decisions were made regarding the monitoring of violent and sexual offenders in the community.

She was picked for the job by by the Ministry of Justice and spent years working alongside senior police officers, prison governors and staff, and senior probation managers as well representatives from organisations including adult social care, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Fire and Rescue Service.

She said: "I was delighted to offer my expertise to MAPPA and it’s been such an interesting role as I’ve worked with a wide range of professionals who are doing their very best to ensure public safety within Lancashire."

In 2018, she was invited to be a keynote speaker at the United Nations Headquarters, in New York, to celebrate the International Day of Older Persons.

During her academic career Professor Codd has published research on prisons, prisoners’ families and punishment.

She said: "My experience with MAPPA has enabled me to understand, and explain to my students, how many resources go into protecting the public, whereas most media coverage only focuses on the small minority of cases where things do not go as planned."

The MAPPA Awards are given annually to people who have made a direct impact on public protection, therefore public safety, within the county.