Few would argue that prisons are not overcrowded, and that confinement per se prepares the offender for life beyond prison. While many imaginative proposals for alternatives to incarceration have been presented in this publication, overlooked amidst the welter of treatment programs and initiatives of various types are community service programs. Is community service a naive idea? Or is it just passe? Actually, neither of the above.
The survivalist mentality cultivated in prison transfers outside. Once released, the parolee is generally on his own to make good in a society of eroded supports that is hostile to his prison record, lack of skill, and re-entry as an outsider. Priorities of eat or be eaten overwhelm constructive options. That doesn't concern you? Well, consider how much crime is a function of selfishness and destruction, a product of low self-esteem and disenfranchisement. How many cases of fraud, sexual exploitation, murder or theft, are committed by the unselfish, constructive, secure and connected?
Community service is a sentence all too often reserved for the first time offender, the petty criminal, the Ivan Boeskys, and the cases with poor evidence that plead out. Fine. But, one cannot help noticing how thoughtfully run programs are able to instill concern for the needs and vulnerabilities of others, and an appreciation for one's importance beyond the power conveyed by the gun once carried. There is no greater accomplishment than recognizing you have it in you to do something to build up another. This lesson can no longer go unacknowledged.
It's time to expand community service to include all offenders. This is neither coddling the criminal nor cruel and unusual punishment. And, it shouldn't work to prevent the offender from reintegrating into the community. On the contrary, community service will make him welcome by the law abiding. Community service can also act to further cultivate an appreciation of consequences. Defrauded an elder of life savings? How about a stint assisting the poor and housebound? Violent? Assign the offender to a head-trauma rehab unit. Drug sales? Help children of parents incarcerated or ravaged by drug dependence. The possibilities are endless.
Far away from the largesse of lobbyist-funded lunches and Wall Street fantasy, America still contains its trailer parks of misery. There, the victimized ironically develop the future criminality of those missed by the glow of a thousand points of light. As our leaders contemplate diverting even more human resources to rebuilding alternatives to democracy like Bosnia and East Timor, the human potential still dormant in so many of our inmates can build our forgotten America, as the forgotten inmates rebuild themselves. The respect that would inevitably develop between the people served and benefited by those who now reap reward from serving and benefiting, would foster an alternative to a life of crime and taking. That's why community service needs to be expanded, not only as an alternative to incarceration, but for imprisoned offenders as well. Whenever applicable, it should be a required springboard before return to the community.
