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ut they do tend to speak frankly to their lawyer because they know that not doing so may lead to
unfortunate crossedwires.” A8J1SC.
Similarlyconcern was expressed at the level of discretion used bythe probation officer and
the consequent detachment of the offender from the Courts’ authority. One Judge was
exercisedbythe element of drift anddelaywhich mayaccompanysome communityservice
orders once theyare made when he stated:
“… a lot of cases that come back before the Courts are coming back after a very protracted period
of time, with the order not complied with. I wouldprefer to see such cases brought back as earlyas
possible… because the seriousness of the situation can be brought home to the Defendant rather
than leaving him thinking for maybe a period of 12 months that he can get away with it. That he
has no one to account to or that the court has no power of authorityto bring him back to deal with
him…its difficult to knowgenerally each area may be different but to be coming back after 6 or 12
months, I think its too late.” A2J1DC.
In summary, the Probation Service was identified as the criminal justice agency best suited
to perform the mediating role between the offender and the courts in the implementation
of the community service order. Prior experience in the assessment of offenders and
probation work with offenders by the Probation Service was not however sufficient to
prepare these agencies, whose orientation was decidedly welfarist, for the new challenges
which presented in the operationalisation of communityservice. In particular, the exercise
of discretion bythe Probation Service in both the assessment for communityservice andin
the supervision of the offender while on a community service order, presented distinct
challenges to their professional outlook. In the assessment for community service, the
Probation Officer could not know what other sentence a court might give if a negative
report was presented. The Probation Officer may thus seek to protect her client against a
harsher penalty such as imprisonment. Similarly, once an offender is placed upon
community service, the scope for discretion is seen to diminish significantly as the
performance of community service becomes the only criterion upon which discretion may
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