The Community Service Alternative

The court system often gives offenders the option of performing unpaid
community service as punishment.  It is important that we know what this
entails and what must be done to qualify for it, before we put ourselves in a
position where we are likely to be arrested.  It is not enough to simply
assume we will be granted community service and that community service will
not be as severe to us as other punishments.  This is why I was asked to
detail my community service experience and to make some reasonable
generalisations about what anyone pursuing this option can expect.

In May 1990, thirty-two members of the Melbourne Rainforest Action Group were
tried, found guilty and fined $100 each.  None asked for community service,
but most did not pay the fine.  After many months, we received notices in the
mail telling us to appear before a magistrate to explain why we had not paid. 
I was told my options were: pay the fine, wait until warrants are issued,
which would eventually lead to arrests and some time in prison, or I could go
to another office and ask that my fine be converted into service.  I asked and
was told to wait for an employee of the Department of Corrective Services to
come and assess my suitability.  After an hour or so, the bureaucrat I was
waiting for arrived, but at least he was a nice one.  In fact he had actually
been out in a canoe on an Melbourne RAG ship blockade.

After this we went back to the Clerk of Courts, booked a court for the
application to be heard and the nice bureaucrat left me to it.  After more
waiting, someone took my application and gave it to the magistrate who read it
and gave me twelve hours community hours community service.  He also explained
that community service is an option only when you can demonstrate that you
have so little property and income that paying the fine, even in instalments
would cause you more hardship than is reasonable.

My first obligation was to attend my local community service centre within so
many hours.  If I did not fulfil this or any other obligation I would be
resentenced on the original charges for breaching the Corrections Act 1986. 
For example, I found out I could not own a firearm for five years according to
the Firearms Act 1958; for the next two months, I was to be, in effect, under
a good behaviour bond ( if I broke the law, or even left the state without
permission, I could be tried under the Corrections Act 1986, as well as being
charged for any other crimes I had committed in the process, and be
resentenced on the original charge); I would be breaking the Corrections Act
1958 if I attended work in unsuitable clothing; did not work hard enough; was
late without what they considered a good excuse; was absent without both a
medical certificate and what they considered a good excuse; if I defied a
lawfully given directive of a Community Corrections Officer; etc...  I was
given a forest full of pamphlets telling me just what my obligations were and
who I could appeal to if I thought I was being incorrectly accused of not
fulfilling these obligations.

You too, would have to be prepared to sign away these liberties if you choose
this path.  One good thing I was informed of, however, was that the magistrate
had used his discretion and stated that after I had completed my community
service I would not have a record.  When, after all this, I was told that I
would have to come back for another interview before I even began my community
service, I realised two things:
* The real punishment is in having to deal with the bureaucracy.
* Community service is not about teaching you how to act in a socially
responsible manner, it is about teaching you how to obey.

On my second appointment I encountered another nice bureaucrat.  He said, "Oh,
you mean with the Rainforest Action Group!", when I said I was found guilty of
clambering and disobeying a lawfully given directive of an officer of the Port
of Melbourne.  He told me that he supported us in what we were doing and that
he had been keeping a close eye on the campaign.  He also said that he was
surprised that I did not get forty hours work.  He photographed me and told me
they have a work site, just near where I live (in fact only twenty minutes
away by bicycle).  He said that I would be working with intellectually
handicapped people, and asked if that was OK by me.  "Yes!", I said quickly,
over the moon that I was actually going to be working for the good of the
community and not just kicking shit for the State.  I was given considerable
freedom to state for myself which hours to attend.

My community service was 9 to 3:30 on two weekdays with half an hour for
lunch.  I was in a sheltered workshop, performing the same work as the
intellectually disabled people.  I spent a day and a half filling pepper mills
with peppercorns, and a half day making cardboard boxes for condoms.  I spent
a lot of time chatting with the intellectually disabled people and learned a
lot.  In the end, I asked the chief supervisor for a job there, helping and
supervising the intellectually disabled people.  He sounded positive, but I
have not yet heard from him.  It was from him that I received my only
'anti-green' comment.  He said, with a smile "Oh, I'm from the bush, I see
things differently".  I didn't try to list the number of full-on greenies I've
met who were born and bred in the bush.  In the end I was quite glad I had
taken this option once, but was quite sure that I would never do it again.

Steven Noble