Correcting Community Service: From Work Crews to Community Work in a Juvenile Court

Abstract

In 2001, the Clark County Juvenile Court in Washington State implemented the use of "restorative community service" (RCS) as part of its larger adoption of a restorative justice framework. This paper explores the court's implementation and use of RCS, including: (1) the types of institutional changes made by the court in its development of RCS, (2) the types and qualities of social interactions observed by the researcher through participant observation at several RCS sites, (3) the practical implications of these findings for proponents of restorative justice in the use of community service in youth settings, and (4) the theoretical implications of these findings for sociological and criminological research on community service.

Four Challenges in the Future of Restorative Justice

“…Again, there are few examples in the literature of program redesign or reorientation of community service as "restorative," (c.f. Wood, 2012) and far more that suggest such programs have been merely rebranded as "restorative" for their purported means by which offenders can "make amends" to the community.…”

‘Make Not Your Prisons Your Prisons’: Participant-perceived Potential Outcomes of a Shakespeare Focussed Alternative to Juvenile Incarceration in the USA

“…Dame Sally Coates conducted the 2016 review of the UK prison education, and highlighted differences between prison as punishment and prison for punishment, highlighting the investment return value for societal investment in education (Coates 2016). Economic arguments are recurrently linked with thinking that offenders are unworthy of investment, however in the US context, introducing community sentences from the 1970s onwards was grounded in cost-effective and rehabilitative motivations (Wood 2011). To dismiss rehabilitative arguments entirely is to dehumanise offenders, where they are consistently described in derogatory terms such as 'thug' rather than what they actually are, children.…”

“…Though at the point of project introduction there was considerable public debate, community sentences remain a popular choice in the USA (Wood 2011). The wider study these data derive from investigates how Shakespeare is currently used in criminal rehabilitation with juvenile and adult offenders in the USA to explore potential alternative approaches for the UK context.…”

Community Participation in Restorative Justice: Rituals, Reintegration, and Quasi-Professionalization

“…While actively involved in the encounter, they are usually not part of the micro-community of the victim and offender (McCold, 2004). Finally, community involvement may take place after a restorative encounter, such as when young people and community volunteers work side by side in 'restorative community service' programmes (Bazemore & Karp, 2004;Bazemore & Stinchcomb, 2004;Wood, 2012).…”