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45 Fed. Probation 3 (1981)
Community Service Sentencing: Jail Alternative or Added Sanction

handle is hein.journals/fedpro45 and id is 165 raw text is: Community Service Sentencing: Jail Alternative or Added Sanction? BY MARK S. UMBREIT* NE OF THE more popular criminal justice system reforms in recent times has been that of community service sentencing of con- victed offenders, often advocated as an alter- native to incarceration for nonviolent criminal of- fenders. Whether these new programs are called volunteer work, service restitution, sym- bolic restitution, or community service orders, they all involve the assignment of convicted of- fenders to a specified number of hours of free work to various nonprofit and governmental agencies. While the growth of community service sentencing programs is relatively new, the concept of righting wrongs through service work has long been practiced by individual judges as a practical way of paying for one's crimes and is rather consistent with a common sense approach to justice. During the past decade, community service sentencing programs have been developing all over the country. The British experience with use of community service orders on a broad scale and for many serious offenders, beginning in 1972, has provided a major stimulus of the American ex- perience with this additional sentencing alter- native. In a recent report by Kay Harris on Community Service Offenders for the U.S. Depart- ment of Justice, over 130 programs involving com- munity service sentencing are identified in a par- tial list.1 A more thorough and up-to-date list would probably include several hundred. While some states have only a handful of such programs, other states make extensive use of community ser- vice sentencing. For example, in 1977, California programs involved over 31,000 offenders in an estimated 1.3 million hours of community service as an alternative.2 The growing popularity of programs that sentence convicted offenders to a specified number *Mr. Umbreit is executive director of PACT, Inc. (Prisoners and Community Together), a regional community corrections program for offenders and victims in several cities of Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, with headquarters in Michigan City, In- diana. He is also a part-time instructor in criminal justice at Valparaiso University. This article was made possible by a grant from the National Institute of Corrections of the U.S. Department of Justice. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the National Institute of Corrections. of hours of community service work is closely linked to the perception that such programs are alternatives to jail or prison incarceration and, therefore, offer a more humane, less costly and far more beneficial criminal sanction for selected non- violent offenders. By avoiding the negative impact of prison, some would even believe that commun- ity service sentencing might actually be more rehabilitative in allowing the offender to make amends. As Alan Harland points out in a recent report, this perception has been promoted by the media, criminal justice practitioners, and policymakers and in academic literature.3 Harland makes reference to a recent LEAA newsletter arti- cle entitled Offenders Avoid Imprisonment by 'volunteer' Work, as well as quoting an LEAA objective in funding such programs. The program seeks to create an innovative alternative to the typical correctional processing of selected of- fenders.. .The criminal justice system is expected to benefit from the lowered costs of nonincarceration.4 With prisons in America facing an enormous amount of overcrowding and all of its related pro- blems, including Federal court intervention, it is rather understandable why a concept such as com- munity service sentencing as an alternative to in- carceration for many of the nonviolent and realtively minor offenders we continue to pack into our prison systems is becoming so popular. At a time when many state governments are faced with the most severe fiscal constraints present in recent years, continued prison construction becomes more problematic and development of practical and low cost alternatives becomes more acceptable to seriously consider. And yet, the fundamental question that must be addressed as one examines the development of community service sentencing, or any so-called alternative to incarceration, is does such a reform, in fact, result in a decrease in the use of traditional jail or prison incarceration. 'U.S. Department of Justice. National Institution of Corrections, Community Ser- unceBy Offenders. January 1979, p. 49. 21bid., p. 10. 3Alan T. Harland, Court Ordered Community Service in Criminal Law. Na- tional Assessment of Adult Restitution Programs. School of Social Development, University of Minnesota, Duluth. March 1980. p. 6. 41bid.

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