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... a fine was in effect no penalty, because the offender was either well to do or dependant
on his parents; and where a custodial sentence was in all the circumstances, and with all
it involved, too harsh, or inappropriate in the sense that it would be likelyto embitter
or contaminate an offender who was not alreadysteepedin criminal behaviour. (Ibid.:
para.8)
This latter explanation offered by sentencers seemed to point to the need to create a new
penaltywhich would act as a via media between the apparent ineffectiveness of fines and the
harshness of imprisonment. As will be seen the Wootton Committee recommended this
intermediate sanction and the enabling legislation created a penalty which was not
necessarilyan alternative to a custodial sentence.
Community service orders might be seen to emerge from this groundswell of perceived
need on the part of those who contribute most directly to any increase or decrease in
prison numbers, namelythe Judiciary.
Describing as their most “formidable challenge” the need to devise an entirelynewtype of
non-custodial penalty, the Committee resolved that “the recognised facts of the situation”
required a new and radical development (Home Office 1970:par.30). This method of
enquiry has been criticised on the grounds that it is based upon the application of
pragmatic considerations to issues. The report does not reveal anywide-ranging discussion
on the role of penalty in society as such, either in its contemporary setting or historically
(Hood1974; Bottoms 1984).
The Sub-Committee under Baroness Wootton regarded their proposal to recommend
community service as its most radical, which would most likely meet the demands of
sentencers who were “baffled by the difficulties of devising any satisfactory alternative”
(Ibid:par.10) to imprisonment. Notwithstanding this specific mandate to identify non-
custodial sanctions for professional criminals the Report clearly identifies offenders at the
lowest end of the scale of seriousness as most suitable for community service when they
stated:
We have not attempted to categorise precisely the types of offender for whom
communityservice might be appropriate, nor do we think it possible to predict what
use might be made bythe courts of this newform of sentence. While inappropriate
for trivial offences, it might well be suitable for some cases of theft, for unauthorised
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