I was watching a report last night -- and sorry...I don't know what network because I was surfing all over...but there was part of an interview with the present mayor of her town where she was talking about community service for this gal as punishment, and this mayor was saying something like, well, she can maybe man a crisis hotline or something, and I'm thinking, no....community service should be more like handing her a shovel or a broom and telling her to get out there and do some physical labor. I don't want her to be engaged in some activity that won't break her fingernails.
Then, there was an interview with her father, I think it was, who said something like, well, this will be a good learning exercise for the local police...they will be better prepared for the next missing persons case, or something like that, and I thought, great spin. I mean, are the people of her town supposed to be grateful that she voluntarily created this situation so they could waste time, money and other resources just so they could LEARN from the experience?
I guess these inane comments are as a result of lawyer influences, but they do nothing for this woman. She has to get out there and say she is SORRY...then she has to face whatever criminal or civil proceeding is decided upon, and she has to do whatever it takes to make amends. And above all, she had better get some physical and/or mental health care to help her get herself together. She has some serious problems and it's more than past time that she faces them.
"Man a crisis hotline". Good Lord, this woman IS the crisis. She needs to help herself first but I am certain she will be sheltered from any "punishment" because she needs "help". And a "learning exercise". My, how they are trying to make it all better. Talk about dysfunction.
Most private businesses such as hospitals do not want these no-matter-how-benign perp bodies around. Brainless work has to be temporarily created for them.
Businesses don't want or don't have the time to watch them during their CS hours. Plus, depending on the charges that were brought originally, other employees are often afraid of them.
Therefore, the community service assignees are shunted into government or social work agencies to do their hours. I was township supervisor when we got saddled with a CS person. The only thing we could do with him was to have him endlessly feed minor document pages through a copy machine for the few hours every week (for seven weeks) he was there. That's all he was qualified for. We couldn't take routine work away from other employees without some kind of training for him and tying up the regular office worker just to train this individual.
Assigning community service screw-ups to "pick and shovel" type jobs requires supervision plus insurance problems. Proper vetting is impossible and you don't want just anyone in a government "job" out on the streets dealing with or near the public without supervision. If something goes haywire, there's an instant lawsuit against the city or town.
I hope y'all are beginning to get my drift.
Community service generally ends up with the schlump sitting around some social work office unhooking papers clips until his/her hours are thankfully fulfilled. The only "punishment" for him/her is getting up in the morning and getting somewhere on time.
Take it from one who knows all about comical "community service"
Better to give a light offender 30 days, suspend the sentence, impose strict probation, and give everyone, including the public, a break. "Community service" should fool no one.
Leni