Community Service and Community Labor - Assignment Example

 Community Service and Community Labor The court, after finding a person guilty of any wrongdoing gives out the different punishment, as it deems necessary. Community service is one of the sanctions that is regularly imposed on various offenders. Criminals found guilty are required to work for several hours in performing community services or working free at any directed agency. The offender works in a tax supported or nonprofit agencies where he or she holds an unpaid position. The offender is supposed to work for a specified number of hours as directed in the ruling and within a specified period. The program is meant to be of value to the greater community. The program was initiated in the United States and the legislatures adopted it to avoid the overcrowding experienced in prisons. Offenders who were convicted of non-violent charges would be given days and hours to work in community services rather than being taken to prison (Alarid, 2014). The offenders would also be ordered to make restitution to the various victims in lieu of incarceration. The program however has had it share view of criticism particularly during the early days of its enactment. People would argue that the community services would be beneficial to the community, which had not suffered any loss or affected in the crime. There were suggestions that the community was never a victim in any crime conducted to a person. There were further suggestions that the community service did not make good the community and so it would be a waste to establish the program. To counter these false accusations, judges proved that the community is a secondary victim of any crime. In the 1997 case ruling (Van Ness and Strong), the judge ruled that the community suffered psychological injuries brought about by fear of any crime committed. The community has in several cases been forced to raise insurance costs and make donations making it to be a secondary victim of any crime committed. Under the program, the crime offender gets the chance to see how his or her crime has impacted the community and get a firsthand experience of the indirect injuries his or her crime causes. Community service gives the offender a chance to see the limit the society tolerates his or her actions. The program gives the offender a proactive and constructive chance to repair the damages caused by his or her crime. Community service is centered on accountability rather than rehabilitation or punishment. The program focuses on the strengths rather than their needs or the offenders. The program overlooks a person’s lack of insight as it focuses on their responsibility capacity. One person who has been put under the community service probation is the famous Lindsey Lohan. After being found guilty of drug use, she was sentenced to a 10-day community service and ordered to go for alcohol and drug therapy education. Another popular community service sanction known in the entire world is that of Chris Brown. The popular American musician was involved in a fight with his then girlfriend and after been found guilty, he was ordered to perform community service. In addition to the punishment, the judge ordered him to attend anger management treatment therapy. A community based service ruling has various benefits to every party involved in the case. The community gets the most benefit, as the directive from the court on the offender is to help the community. A person can be ordered to go and clean up a particular place every day like sweeping a particular road area. This is a form of maintaining the environment clean and conducive to leave in. The service is offered freely and this saves the community some money, which it would have used to hire the person to perform the job. In the event there are many people ordered to perform a community service for an extended period, the community can save money, which can be used in other development projects (Alarid, 2014). Community servicing is rather embarrassing and this has a positive impact to the local people. Everyone seems to know a person carrying his or her community service orders, this makes them want to avoid going through such embarrassment, and this in the process reduces the number of people committing petty crime. The community service sanction also helps the government agencies and workers particularly those working in prisons. Sanctioning people to conduct community services reduces the number of people going to prison and this reduces the workload off the prison warders. The government saves in the process the extra cost of keeping offenders in prison as it entails giving them food and water. The system has several loopholes, which are exploited by malicious people. For the system to operate efficiently, there had to be the establishment of parole or community service officers who monitor the offenders. There have been reported cases where some offenders have bribed the officers in order to shun responsibilities. The Greater New Orleans publication recently reported of an officer who was arrested in connection to a bribe case. The officer was a community service director who had received a bribe from an offender for the exchange of a good public record. This is an example of the many cases whereby the offenders pay the officers to avoid the given responsibility. Community service is meant to help the offender realize the negative influence his or her crime has on the community. An observation made revealed that people who had been sanctioned with a community service tend to repeat the same mistake as they had done earlier. Upon being found guilty and being ordered to perform community service, a person loses very little rights and privileges as compared to a person jailed in prison. This means that the person has freedoms of movement and association, which are deprived to the person in jail. The knowledge of such a person and other people in the community that community service does not deprive a person many rights can make them careless. People would not fear committing various crimes as they will be given a community service sanction. This can lead to the rise of petty crimes, which affect a certain place negatively in terms of attracting people from another place. There is also the issue of judges not being in agreement as to which crimes whose punishment is a community service sanction. There are incidents where the same cases conducted by different persons have had different punishments leading to confusion. A case can be punishable by a jail sentence in a particular area while an offender of the same crime but in a different area get a community service sanction. Lack of keeping the offender out of prison is a disadvantage to the community as the offender may continue with his or her mischievous crimes bringing fear to the community. The fact that the offenders do not go to prison is another disadvantage of community service to review. Many people in the contemporary society stay out of carrying out troublesome actions because of the much fear they have of the authorities. When these people realize that engaging in petite acts does not send them to prison, they start practicing these malicious acts and before long, they advance to even larger crimes that endanger people. It is important to ensure that the law is so strict that these people fear committing criminal activities. However, there are cases where community service works well to punish the individual found guilty of a crime. A case in example is that of celebrity singer Chris Brown. He was found guilty of harassing and even physically abusing his then girlfriend, Rihanna. The court found him guilty of the offence and received punishment by being assigned community service (Billboardbiz, 2013). This community service disciplined him because since the incident, he has not been involved in any large scandal involving harassing or abusing women. This is a fact that proves to show that despite the widespread negativity involving community service, it does have its rewards. Conclusion Community service sanction benefits many people and mostly the community. A person is punished by being forced to work which helps the entire community. Putting a person in jail is not always good as the person has energy that can be out into use. People who engage in petty crimes are given reprieve of being put in the same place as murderers who would corrupt their mind while locked up in jail together. The unpredictability of which crime is punishable by ordering the offender to conduct community service is helpful as people try to avoid conducting any form of crime. giving the offender a chance to see how his or her crimes negatively impacts the community and giving that person a chance to be of use to the same community helps in rehabilitating him or her. This rehabilitation may be more useful that locking the person in jail. Reference Alarid, Leanne Fiftal. (2014). Community-based Corrections. Belmont: Cengage Learning. Billboardbiz. (2013). Chris Brown Sentenced To Five Years' Probation and Community Labor. 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