Community Punishment

Question 1

Describe the negative effects of prison

Answer 1

Effects on self image
Effects on family relationships
Effects on employment
Effects on housing 
Effects on communities

Question 2

Describe a modern community order

Answer 2

Order made for specified period of time (6 months to 3years, Scotland; no minimum period up to 3 years,England/Wales)
Under supervision (a probation officer (England/Wales) orsocial worker (Scotland))
Meet regularly for interview
Undertake ‘requirements’ (e.g. unpaid work, drugtreatment, alcohol therapy, CBT counselling, curfews (stay in a particular place at particular times), restrictions on where you can go, tagging,etc)
If conditions are not met (‘breach’) offender has to go backto court for sentencing again

Question 3

Benefits of community punishment

Answer 3

Less punitive
Less destructive of people’s lives
Cheaper
More flexible
More readily adapted to the particular needs of the offender
Allows offender to maintain links with family, work and wider community 
Not as stigmatising as prison
Benefits to the community? (‘payback’)

Question 4

How is community punishment still punitive

Answer 4

A “fine on time
Restriction of liberty
Surveillance and social control

Question 5

Describe criticisms of community punishment

Answer 5

38% public see sentences as ‘soft option’ (Policy Exchange 2010)
Is criminal proceedings the correct place for “treatment?”

Question 6

Describe some arguments for making community service more punitive

Answer 6

Community Payback:
The work should be more visible and demanding, not something any member of the public would choose to do themselves
The local community should receive information about it and who is doing it.
Offenders should wear brightly coloured tabards
Work should involve an increased loss of personal time/liberty through greater intensity and frequency of hours