Community Service Orders
Instead of a prison sentence, convicted offenders may be given the opportunity to perform unpaid work for the community. The legislation for Community Service Orders allows the Judge to sentence a convicted offender to between 40 and 240 hours work.
The offender must be 16 years or over to be considered and any order made must be completed within a year.
Community Service is a direct alternative to a prison sentence and will only be considered by the Judge if a custodial sentence has first been considered.
The Judge will ask the Probation and Welfare Service to:
- complete an assessment as to whether the offender is suitable or not to do community service, and
- state whether there is work available to be completed.
A probation officer will interview the offender in preparing the report. The Judge will specify the sentence to be served if the offender fails to complete the order. The number of hours per week to be worked is agreed with the Probation Officer.
It is the responsibility of the offender to complete the community service ordered. The probation officer is responsible for bringing the case back to court for any failure by the offender to complete the order.
The aim of Community Service is to get offenders to pay back to the community in a positive way for the damage caused by offending. Every year thousands of unpaid hours of work are completed, benefiting many community and voluntary groups.
