View/Open - CORA - University College Cork

discretion by probation officers and community service officers in assisting offenders to
complete community service has been found to be a key element in the successful
completion of such orders (McIvor 1992; Young 1979). The discretionary procedures
used by the Probation Service to promote compliance with community service closely
reflect the methods of traditional social work, but the finite temporal aspect of the
communityservice order combined with the usuallyunambiguous nature of the work to be
performed tend to change the character of that discretion. Instead of the client-orientated
perspective of the social worker a newer and more externally demanding task-oriented
perspective is called forth in the practice of the probation officer. This newperspective is
inspired more by the requirements of compliance and control. In this regard West
observes:
… that probation orders contain requirements for certain activities (reporting,
notifying change of address), but these do not per se define the content of the order
as does community service work. If the offender does not work, there is no
rationale for the order to continue. (West 1977:117)
The opportunity to engage in community service which might influence the offender to
change his/her behaviour, which the Wootton Committee so clearly emphasised, is
frustrated by non-compliance on the part of the offender if he simply fails to turn up for
community service. From the offender’s perspective the experience of probation
supervision in the past may lead to an expectation on his part, that a similar discretionary
approach may be used by the probation officer with regard to community service orders
(McWilliams and Murphy1980). On the other hand if judicial and public confidence is to
be maintained in the sanction, the ability to extract work as required by the order must be
consistentlydemonstrated. Phipps puts it thus:
Breach proceedings against an offender who persistently fails to comply with the
conditions of a community service order are inevitable. This is the reality of an
order which specifies the number of hours “unpaid work” which must be performed
79