Community Service Orders

Abstract

Community service orders are penal sanctions in which convicted offenders are placed in unpaid positions with nonprofit or governmental agencies. Proponents typically urge the use of community service as an alternative to imprisonment. Community service programs have been established in many countries. The most extensive and most studied experience is British. Following a 1970 recommendation of the Advisory Council on the Penal System, enabling legislation was passed in 1972 and pilot programs were initiated in 1973 in six probation districts. By the late seventies, community service programs were in place throughout the United Kingdom. In 1982, more than 30,000 orders were imposed on 8 percent of offenders sentenced for serious crimes. A major Home Office evaluation of the British system used four different methods to calculate the extent to which those sentenced to community service would otherwise have been imprisoned. By every method, it appeared that no more than half would have been imprisoned. Research in Great Britain and in several other countries confirms this finding. For community service to be justified as an alternative to incarceration but used as a supplement to nonincarcerative sentences is hypocritical. Offenders who would not have been imprisoned in the absence of orders may find themselves later imprisoned for violation of an order. Among the major problems of implementation are disparities in the extent of imposition of orders, in the length of orders, and in the use of sanctions against offenders who do not comply with orders. There have been few efforts to assess the impact of the use of orders on recidivism, and the results are inconclusive.