Community service is known as one of the modes of punishment. The Legal Dictionary by TheFreeDictionary describes it as a sentencing option for persons convicted of crimes in which the court orders the defendant to perform a number of hours of unpaid work for the benefit of the public. This one is provided by the law. With it, it makes it possible for the offender to escape imprisonment or fines.
Read also: This is what will happen if you don’t complete the court-ordered community service
To make it simple, community service is unpaid work performed in the community. A judge has the right to order community service in addition or in lieu of the other sentencing options such as incarceration, probation, fines, or restitution. Usually, it is ordered to low level property crimes or to the first time nonviolent offenders. It used to be given to misdemeanor crimes. In this era, it is usually ordered to felonies as well.
Advantages of Community Service as Punishment
There are a number of advantages of community service as punishment. The first one is related to the cost. In fact, most community programs are cheaper compared to jails and prisons. If offenders are ordered to do community service, they will live at their home. In some cases, they will be asked to contribute to their cost of living when they have to live in the facility.
If the offenders are given the chance to live in the community, they can seek a job to feed themselves and their family members. With the money that they earn, they will also be able to give their victim or the family of their victim the compensation if there is any.
The next advantage of the community service is that it is effective to ease jail and prison crowding by giving these offenders the chance to complete a drug program, boot camp, or some other things. It is especially good if the prisons or jails are already overcrowded. By making them not living in jail or prison, some money also can be saved.
The third advantage of community service is that it has flexible programs that can be used at a lot of points in the criminal justice process. This kind of thing can also be used as a pretrial release option and as the thing that can make the offenders avoid a conviction. Aside from that, it is also helpful in the reentry process after the offenders finished their period of incarceration.
The community service is also known as the softer version of punishment. With it, the offenders can feel respected and valued, which is really good so that they can regret the thing that they have done and hopefully there is a feeling of wanting to change.
Lastly, the community service can be helpful for the offenders to avoid them getting into the jail or prison with an unsafe environment and when there is chaos within it. Besides, it is also beneficial for those who are in need of medical attention, such as terminally ill, physically disabled, or those who are elders. For these kinds of offenders, their own places are best. As for every offender with disability or with mental health, they tend to experience more injustices in prison. For their sake, it might be better to place them somewhere better so that their situation can be better.
A jail or prison is not for everyone. It means not everyone can deal with living in such a place. For some offenders, instead of earning some advantages, they might get disadvantages.
Disadvantages of Community Service as Punishments
While the community service as punishment is good and is preferred by many, there are some disadvantages of it. The advantage of community service can also become a disadvantage. As stated before, drug programs and boot camps can minimize the crowding by placing offenders in a program that makes it possible for them to avoid incarceration. On the other hand, such programs can also be filled with those who actually should have received a less severe sentence. This kind of situation is known as net widening. The situation usually happens when both judges and prosecutors fill the program spaces with those who do not need such a high level of case or intervention rather than the offenders the program was actually made for.
For the offenders, if they are ordered by the court to do community service, they might have to spend more money as some of them are allowed to live outside the facility and live comfortably in their own place. The issue becomes really difficult for the poor and for those without a job. As they are known as the offenders and are still related to something bad, it would be hard for them even if they try to find a job.
Apart from that, another disadvantage is that the public safety might be put at risk. The defenders are the ones that have committed a crime before and it is definitely not easy to trust them, even some of them might have regretted their wrongdoings and are eager to change for the better. It would be easier for the offenders to commit crimes in the outside world than if they live in a jail or prison. While it is true that they are still controlled by the officers, everything can happen, especially when the officers have not kept pace with community corrections growth. With the limited officers, mistakes are such common things because it is just unlikely for these officers to take care or control the offenders when they are outnumbered. And even if technology is used to help the officers’ job, it just will not be enough. Just like human beings, technology also cannot be separated from mistakes. If even with the officer the offenders are brave enough to commit crime, imagine them with only technology. Besides, as these offenders are allowed to do activities such as work and shopping, which are usually done outside their place, it would be easier for them to do something bad or to commit crime outside.
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