Hi, need to submit a 1500 words paper on the topic Why Community Sentences are not Used Frequently in Place of Prison.

Hi, need to submit a 1500 words paper on the topic Why Community Sentences are not Used Frequently in Place of Prison. While such is the case, community sentencing is not always a common mode of punishment owing to the structure and implementation of the punishments as the discussion below proves.

Community sentencing just as the name suggests is a mode of punishment where convicts serve the community by undertaking a variety of unpaid tasks. In such cases, the convicts do not go to prison. They live in the community alongside the rest of the society but dedicate some of their time on a daily basis to work in some public institutions and places within the society. In the United Kingdom, the justice system can use the mode of punishment to discourage such offenses as assault, destruction of property, and benefiting from fraud among others. However, the courts consider the scope of a crime before making a ruling in order to ensure that punishment is commensurate to the crime and injuries that criminal causes to society.

Community sentencing is a systematic form of punishment that offers a number of advantages key among which is the fact that the mode of punishment discourages recidivism. The criminals account for their offenses by working without pay for a number of days. This way, they suffer immense inconveniences that remind them of the need to change their behavior by avoiding criminal activities. The mode of punishment is particularly suitable for first-time offenders. To such offenders, community sentencing serves as a warning, which in turn fosters the fear for imprisonment (Great Britain, 2007). This discourages re-offending.

Furthermore, community sentencing is less costly than imprisoning offenders are to the community. The citizens in a country always sustain the operation of such correctional facilities as prisons through the payment of taxes. An increase in the number of prisoners in a country resonates with a higher cost of maintaining such facilities thereby making the process of curbing recidivism costly. Community sentencing presents a better and less costly option in which the offender pays back to the community by undertaking a task that would otherwise increase public expenditure. Such is a vital feature that encourages the development of a responsive personality in the offenders since they begin to account for their crimes. This way, they appreciate their crimes possibly reforming their behaviors.