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custodial or non-custodial, will be implemented in the manner intended by the court.
Neither the Expert Group on the Probation Service (1999) nor the Comptroller and
Auditor General (2000) identified this fractious relationship between the Probation Service
and the Courts which may have a significant bearing upon the tendency by the Courts to
use communityservice orders with anydegree of frequency.
On the other hand it is arguable, that these practices of the Criminal Courts to remain
engaged with the convicted offender, without relinquishing such functions to the Prison
Service or the Probation Service solely, are an indication of a shift in sentencing sentiment
bythe Irish Judges exercising criminal jurisdiction, towards a more punitive and controlling
sentencingparadigm(McCullagh 1996).
In the surveyone judge in the Central Criminal Court expressed a preference to oversee all
orders made byhimincludingcommunityservice:
“I would monitor anyorder I make. … I just have a belief that the consequences of people’s actions
must be visitedon themandthat theymustn’t slide into conditions of disuedude.”A9J1HC
He expressed concern that such might occur if he did not supervise it. However, the
practicalities of dealing with a constant flow of new cases each day presented to most
judges the impossibility of supervising an offender while on community service. Though
they were distrustful of how their sentences would be implemented, the stated preference
for most of the judges surveyed, particularly in the District Court, was to leave it to the
Probation Service to bring infractions to the notice of the court by way of the breach
procedure:
“None of our business once the sentence is imposed.”A4J1DC
abruptlysums up the views of the majorityof the District Court judges on this point.
Thus, once the court makes a communityservice order ownership of the sanction with few
exceptions moves from the court to the Probation Service and primarily to the offender
him/herself. If the offender fails to perform the community service the autonomy vested
in him/her to complete the requirements of the sanction may be forfeited. In such
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