NCJ Number
144950
Journal
Southern California Law Review Volume: 66 Issue: 1 Dated: (November 1992) Pages: 155-207
Date Published
1992
Length
53 pages
Annotation
Community service orders (CSO's), as a form of intermediate punishment for offenders, fall in between the harshness of imprisonment and the leniency of probation, and facilitate a more flexible, rational sentencing system.
Abstract
Data were collected from a CSO program in a U.S. District Court in Northern California in 1989. Research included direct observation of the 23 judges, study of reports filed by the eight probation officers, and interviews among 129 supervisors of CSO participants. Use of CSO is relatively high in the jurisdiction. Almost all of the CSO participants were found to have fulfilled the terms of their sentence. A comparison of offenders given the three types of sentences--probation, probation plus community service, and imprisonment--showed that community service has no appreciable effect on recidivism rates. The authors make a point that CSO's do not hurt, and may help, and are cheaper than imprisonment. 1 figure, 13 tables, and 79 footnotes