Punishment for a crime is meant to discipline offenders while also isolating them from society by taking away their freedom and giving them a chance to during prison time. Some people opine that such punishment is brutal and should be more lenient, like awarding community work to minor offenders. I disagree with this view because jail time is given only after a proper investigation , and light punishments for crimes can not be effective in curbing crimes in many countries.
Our judicial system works systematically and considers the intent of committing a crime. Thus a drunk driver who crosses the speed limit and someone who does so to reach a hospital to treat an ill elderly are not treated equally. And light offenders are always given a chance to defend themselves. They are often just fined an amount of money rather than being behind bars. Since we already have a system to punish serious offenders and just reprimand light offenders, we do not need to award community work to certain criminals.
Moreover, community work, as an outcome of a crime, fails to rehabilitate a convict mainly because are too light to make the offender regret his or her actions. The jails are made to reform someone when that person is considered a threat to society. And if they are not isolated, properly counselled, and given the time to repent, they will probably commit even bigger crimes in the future. For instance, according to a recent study, almost 30% of juveniles who are just given community or voluntary work for their minor offences often end up committing bigger crimes within a year.
To conclude, our law and judicial system consider the intent and circumstances of a crime and award punishments accordingly. So we do not need community work for crimes because this approach lacks the main objective of rehabilitating criminals.