When people are sentenced to “Community Service”, what does this actually entail?

20 comments

1. Centre Parks

2. I always thought it meant helping out in the community doing tasks like grass cutting etc.

3. The specific terms and length of time depends on the person and nature of offence. Usually most activities involve litter picking, removing graffiti, painting public buildings, cleaning windows or clearing up derelict wasteland etc.

4. My ex boss got a one day a week in a charity shop

5. [deleted]

6. I am not sure if there is difference between Community Payback or Community Service, One might be helping the victims directly, So if you smashed up a shop you might be told to help rebuild it perhaps? I dunno.

7. We had some mending / replacing & painting coastal walk fences earlier this year.

8. A mate of mine had to look after a council owned bouncy castle for six Saturdays during the school holidays. He said it was the best six Saturdays of his life because of all the single mums. I saw the list of phone numbers he’d got, about 20

9. I did mine (300 hours) in a charity shop. I was working full time so only did one day a week. They give you a year to complete it, it took me the entire year

10. Depends on the crime. Mine was a non violent offence, nor theft, so I was allowed to work my service at a charity shop.

11. I did mine at the local country park with between 5 and 10 other people.

    Each week would start with a lap of the reservoir picking up litter, then just low skill odd jobs around the park. We moved felled trees, dug a hole to place a stile, and assembled park benches is what I can remember (it was nearly 20 years ago).

12. Litter pick for me

13. Whatever it is they’re supposed to be doing in Misfits I suppose

14. A friend of mine was regularly threatened with litter picking by a family court Judge – it never happened in the end.

    Personally, I would favour punishments such as hoping on one leg outside Morrisons whilst eating a cold Pot Noddle of my choice.

15. First time I worked in a church under my own supervision (I’m a tradesmen)
    Second time at a charity shop fixing and painting things sorting stock etc.
    You have a health and safety staff meeting first and they interview you to see where you’d fit. If you come across as a reprobate then it’s supervised litter picking etc.

16. I saw some lads around here with a pressure washer, taking graffiti off walls under the gimlet eye of some sort of officer. Guessing they got caught putting it there.

17. I got 250 hours of CS in 2010 for some petty bullshit I did when I was a teen. I actually had a pretty good laugh doing it. We did several things, such as –

    Redecorating Council houses

    Clearing forests and burning the wood

    Litter picking (not very often), this is by far the worst thing you’ll do

    Taking a trip on a canal barge to help British waterways (now the canal and river Trust) clean the canal

    Working with British waterways to help build towpaths

    And many, many more.

    You’ll meet some assholes, that’s to be expected though, after all, you’re working with criminals. The probation workers that take you out are hit and miss, some of them take their jobs too seriously and think they’re the gestapo, others are dead easy going and they’ll leave you be. Also, hot tea and coffee is provided, that’s the law.

    Just make sure you turn up as and when you say you will, or a judge will shove his fist up your arse so deep you’ll cry.

    Edit: I was charged with a violent crime so I wasn’t able to work in charity shops etc, though to be honest I couldn’t think of anything worse.

18. Have you not seen misfits?

19. I had to paint some park railings one day and the next day was tidying up some random workshop

20. Watch ‘Outlaws’, that’s exactly how it is. Christopher Walken’s always there painting doors and helping out with money laundering.