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national average length of community service orders is one hundred and forty-one hours
subject to regional variations which showed relativelylittle main areas of population. 47
A certain caution is called for when comparing the average length of the substituted prison
term of 5.1 months per community service order. This may, in part, be explained by a
tendency for individual courts to adopt an elastic approach to the issue of equivalence
between the number of hours to be served and the prescribed alternative period of
imprisonment.
Without access to the appropriate data it is speculated that the terms of imprisonment
imposed at the various sentencing courts reflect the wider sentencing patterns of these
courts as courts which normallytend to severityor leniencyas the case maybe. However,
without the requisite comparative data such a viewmust remain speculative.
While Jennings claims that community service orders are frequently made in the Circuit
Criminal Courts (Jennings 1990:192), she does not supply any data on this point. 48
However, Walsh andSexton (1999) in their comprehensive sample found that onlythirteen
(4%) of community service orders surveyed were imposed in the Circuit Criminal Court
and one in the Central Criminal Court. Of particular interest is the fact that four of the
thirteen communityservice orders made bythe Circuit Court were made for District Court
Appeals andtherefore were limitedto District Court sentencingjurisdiction. 49
Therefore out of 269 community service orders examined for the year in question, nine
were made in the Circuit Court and one in the Central Criminal Court following a trial or a
plea of guiltyat first instance in those respective courts. Their studyfurther discloses that
even in the nine cases which were exclusivelydisposals at first instance, none but one were
47 (P.36.1) - the averages for Dublin, Limerick andCork are: 147 hours, 150 hours and142 hours respectively.
48 In the year 2005 community service was used in 99 disposals out of a total of 2258 in the Circuit Criminal Court or 4% of all disposals. In the same year
2005 in the District Court, community service was used as a disposal in 1244 out of a total of 302134 summary cases or 0.41% while 9959 or 3.3% of cases
were disposed of bywayof custodial sentences for the same categoryof summaryoffences. Communityservice was used as a disposal in 766 or 1.85% out of
a total of 41,374 indictable cases disposed of summarily in the same period. While 8493 or 20.53% received custodial sentences in the same category of
disposals (Courts Service Annual Report 2005:87-90 extrapolated statistics.) In 2006, 29 courts accounted for 80% of the CSOs and just 12 courts accounted
for 60% of the total number for 2006 out of a total of 112 courts. Thus the distribution of communityservice as a sanction across the entire system of courts
in Ireland is skewed in favour a verylimited number of courts i.e. relativelyfewcourts utilise the sanction as a regular sanction (Petrus VFM Report 2009:38).
In 2007, community service was used by the District Court for 9.7% of indictable cases as a final disposal of custodial cases and was used for 11.2% of
summarycases as a final disposal in custodial cases (Petrus VFM2009:38).
49 (P. 36.2) the sample used byWalsh and Sexton in their studysampled one in four communityservice order files for a specific year, using two hundred and
sixty-nine files out of a total of one thousandandninety-three for the year fromthe 1st July1996 to 30th June, 1997.
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