to think that community service should not be about humiliation?

[lecce]

We went for a walk in a local park today and I was shocked to see lots of people gardening in bright orange jackets that said, in huge letters, COMMUNITY PAYBACK.

I thought it unecessary and inappropriate. Why should the public see that? Why should such people have to endure people staring and, I should imagine, comments being made by some people?

If people feel humiliated then surely that is far more likely to lead to their feeling angry and defensive rather than remorseful. If punishment is supposed to be partly about rehabilitation then I do not see that humiliation has a part to play at all.

Moreover, it is simply no one's business who is a convict and what their punishment is. It made me feel really uncomfortable, reminding me of The Scarlet Letter, Dunce hats and other old-fashioned and, I had thought, obsolete practices.

Oh, and I dont like the word 'payback' either, what was wrong with 'service'?

It’s not really about humiliation tbh. A relative of mine had to do it and they found it very rewarding.

stfu

Do you not think that's because UK's rehabilitation is shit? In Halden, reoffending rate is 25% over the rest of a criminals life ( much better than UK)

We can also assume that removing the jackets won't cause any problems - so it makes sense to do that, I understand for surveillance reasons it is handy to make them easy to spot, but do you know how many people have abandoned community sentences on sight in last 10 years? 0.

Criminals are created by societal issues, how about we do socioeconomic cleansing of the working class, that would eliminate 98% of crime. Clearly that's inhuman and stupid.

Yeah, I don't think unpaid work itself is bad, I just think the humiliating aspect is unfair.

Is this zombie thread - at 14 fucking years - a record of some sort ?

The point of community’s service is not really punishment. It to give the offender the opportunity to make reparation for the benefit of the community. This way, the offender can realise that what they did was wrong, But they have done something good to address it, and, will hopefully be able to draw a line under the episode and move on with their life.
making them stand out in public is humiliating, and will label them amongst their own community.
If they did choose to reoffend, or breach a community order, the court could then decide that a prison sentence would be a more appropriate action.

YES!

To correct the zombie op.
It IS everyone's business who is a convict and what their punishment is. That's why hearings are in open court.