Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, has published a Bill to encourage the greater use of community service orders as a penalty for criminal offences where a sentence of under 12 months is being considered.
This is the first Bill to be published by Mr Shatter, and reflects a commitment in the Programme for Government.
The Bill places a greater obligation on the courts, when sentencing an offender, to first consider imposing a community service order. It amends the existing 1983 Criminal Justice (Community Service) Act to emphasise the obligation to consider such an order.
Mr Shatter said the community service scheme was significantly under-utilised and its extension would deliver a sentencing system which will provide a safer society at lower cost to the taxpayer.
“It requires offenders to make recompense to the community for the offence committed while reducing the cost to the State and taxpayers of the sanction imposed,” he said.
Diverting offenders from prison allows them to maintain ties with family, friends and community, including to continue in education or employment, he said.
Communities benefit from the unpaid work carried out by those serving community service orders. Increasing the use of community service has the potential to deliver substantial financial savings as it is a considerably cheaper sanction than imprisonment, he said.
Mr Shatter estimated that savings of between €13 m and €18 million could be effected by the use of CSOs in just 10 per cent of cases where short terms of imprisonment were imposed. This does not include the value of the work carried out in the community, which was estimated at €1.5 million in 2007.
The figure was calculated by looking at the making of community service orders in 2009 and the sentences offered as an alternative to a CSO at the time the order was made. These sentences averaged 4.5 months, which, with 25 per cent remission, would have cost the Exchequer €21,718 each. A community service order costs €2,500.
“I look forward to and welcome an increase in the use of the community service scheme,” Mr Shatter said.