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The discretionarypractices of the Probation Service featured again in the discussion on the
needto introduce National Standards in 1989. Critical studies byVass (1984) andEysenck
(1986) highlighted the elastic standards of different probation service agencies around
England and Wales, where absenteeism was identified as unacceptably high in many
schemes. The propensity to probationise community service orders by the probation
officers may have had the effect of discouraging sentencers to use the sanction in a more
expansive manner.
Certain essential factors have been identified which militate against the optimal effect of
the community service order to operate as a thoroughgoing decarcerative device. The
confusion which attended the original conception of community service and its purpose in
the function of sentencing remained throughout the consultative, legislative and
operational phases. Additionally, the propensity by sentencers to use the sanction to
encompass offending which previously would have attracted a fine or probation and the
entrenchment of such practices over decades significantly lessened the opportunity to
provide a newsanction which wouldmeet its stated objectives.
Thus ,the stage is now set to introduce the community service order in Ireland. The
following chapter will examine the community service order in Ireland in light of the
sanction established in England and Wales, with particular reference to the rationales
underpinning the sanction. The views of the judges will be explored to critically examine
the operation of the sanction in light of the policy objectives established for the sanction
bythe Oireachtas.. .
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