NCJ Number
81695
Date Published
1981
Length
20 pages
Annotation
England's experience with community service orders is detailed in a report providing information on kinds of offenders assigned to community service, types of work performed, and outcomes obtained. Issues relating to the Probation Service's administration of the program are raised.
Abstract
Community service orders represent approximately 10 percent of probation departments' caseloads, but often the work is carried out by paraprofessional rather than regular staff. Findings of a survey of 29 community service programs show the typical community service offender to be a male, 17 to 20 years old, who was convicted of a property crime but had not previously received a custodial sentence. In most areas program success is measured by the offender's completion of the community service order; by this standard the success rate is approximately 80 percent. Most schemes assign offenders to manual tasks and other practical work in playgrounds, homes for the elderly, and other community service settings, or in improvement of public property such as parks and museums. Major administrative problems include requirements for a specialized staff, organizational separation from the overall operation of the Probation Service, and discontent among paraprofessionals who wish higher pay and more career opportunities. Despite these and other problems, the Probation Service is expected to continue administering community service orders, perhaps as one of several specialized departments. Public attitudes toward community service have been very favorable. However, it was found that community service orders are used primarily as alternatives to noncustodial sentences, and thus have failed to make dramatic reductions in the prison population. Variations in the way community service operates is attributed to the different weight accorded its three justifications -- punishment, rehabilitation, and reparation. The debate about its position in the sentencing tariff, in particular the urgent issue of whether community service should be seen only as an alternative to prison, is closely bound up with these three stances.