Crimes, in many countries, have gone beyond the tolerable rate, and it is a common practice to incarcerate convicted people. A segment of society opines that not all crimes are equal and the repercussion of harsh sentences for all offences is uncivilised. They outline the need for unpaid community service as punishment for mild offenders and youngsters, and I also believe that certain offenders should be given non-custodial sentences.
The predominant reason for me to believe in like cleaning streets, planting trees, and working for charity instead of the prison sentence is that many offenders are not born criminals, and circumstances often push them to commit a transgression. When such unpremeditated convicts are expelled from society, they incline to re-offend in isolation as there is none to accept them. In a similar fashion, juvenile delinquents should be rehabilitated by community services, and not put them behind bars with other serious criminals. A recent study reveals that many youngsters who had been in prison for a long time often end up becoming even bigger criminals.
Moreover, one of the main objectives of our justice system is to control the crime rate and let offenders come clean. So if we give mild offenders , they would never get the chance to transform themselves. The unpaid community services, unlike harsh prison sentences, let offenders repent for their crimes, get close to other people and understand the essence of good deeds. To illustrate, around 80% of people who had to take part in cleaning and taking care of elderly people as part of their first-time small violations of laws in the state of California said that it positively impacted their view on crimes and changed their mentality. The same can not be said for the people who are put behind bars.
To recapitulate, minor misconduct should be treated differently than serious offences and thus deserves different punishments like unpaid community work. The objective of the law is to maintain peace in society, not to punish people. Thus unpaid community service is a great option to let some convicted lament their crime, do something good for society, and transform into good citizens.