This research project was commissioned by the Department of Justice and examines the impact of the Criminal Justice (Community Service) (Amendment) Act 2011 (henceforth referred to as the 2011 Act) introduced over a decade ago with the expressed intention of encouraging greater use of community service orders (CSOs) for people convicted of minor crimes for which a sentence of imprisonment is deemed appropriate.

Ireland introduced the Community Service Order (CSO), which is a sentence of unpaid work in the community, in 1983 through the Criminal Justice (Community Service) Act 1983. However, in recent years the use of CSOs by the courts has declined. The most recent data shows that in 2012 2569 CSOs were imposed by the Courts, while by 2022 this number had fallen to 1288 orders (Probation Service, 2013, 2022). This decline in use of CSOs is more marked, as the amending legislation referred to above expanded the scope under which judges can impose a CSO. The 2011 Act imposed a new duty on judges to consider imposing a CSO as an alternative to a prison sentence of 12 months or less.

At the same time, the use of imprisonment in Ireland continues to rise. The numbers of people committed to custody has risen in recent years. This includes for short-term prison sentences, that is for sentences of less than 12 months. Through analysis of the existing literature and judicial perspectives on the matter this research aims to provide insight into the causes for the continued over-use of short prison sentences of less than 12 months and the possible underutilisation of CSOs, as well as to shed light on any barriers to the increased use of CSOs and potential options for increasing uptake of CSOs.

P.27 The most recent available data shows that the most common offence categories for which Community Service Orders were issued in 2022 were: drug offences (18.8%); road traffic offences (18.7%); assault offences (11.8%); public order offences (11.7%) and theft (11.5%)...