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The experience of the Probation Service in dealing with offenders under the intensive
probation schemes since 1979 specifically for offenders sentenced for serious offences in
the Circuit and Central Criminal Courts highlighted the fact that there was a sizeable
number of offenders who did not require to be kept in custodyand could be maintained in
the communityunder strict conditions without re-offending(Jennings 1990).
As previouslymentioned, the vast bulk of prisoners were committed to prison for offences
of a minor nature bythe District Court. The desirabilityof dealing with these shallow-end
offenders under a community based penalty was all the more feasible in light of the
experience in dealing with medium to deep-end offenders in community based Intensive
Probation Schemes. As the Minister for Justice put it in the Dail, the aim of Community
Service is “to keep out of prison offenders for whom custody is not essential” (Dail
Debates vol. 341, col. 131, 20 th April, 1983, Mr Noonan).
These several factors referred to above, provided the primaryvectors which resulted in the
introduction of community service in Ireland. Some of these factors were pragmatically
based, especially the issue of prison over-crowding and the imminent necessity to expend
huge capital and revenue resources in the building of new prisons. The economic and
fiscal climate in the early 1980s was incomparable in its austerity when compared with the
latter-day celtic-tiger economy. The function of the community service order as a
diversion from custody must be understood primarily as a solution to this pragmatic issue.
Additionally, the use of custody by the courts was considered inappropriate for a large
number of cases, especially cases where a sentence of relatively short duration was
imposed. These very same short sentences acted as a major strain on prison
accommodation and resources. Besides the pragmatic issues of resources and their uses, a
certain change in sentiment emerged based upon observations that prison use achieved
verylittle bywayof deterrence or rehabilitation of the offender. The growth in the crime
rate and the seeming inability of the prison system to sufficiently deter further offending
alarmed manyDeputies in Dail Eireann. The positive feature of communityservice such as
restitution and rehabilitation were promoted as dynamic features of change in the
behaviour of offenders in contrast to the static and limited results of custodial sentences.
The venue for making such restitution was clearly identified in a community setting where
the offender might also come to appreciate, by working with others, the values of the
communityand assimilate these values as his/her own.
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