Decline in the Use of Community Penalties and Reversal of the Trend
Over the past few decades, the increased adoption of community sanctions or sentences has been a typical phenomenon among several nations, focusing on community-based alternatives to actual imprisonment (Mews, Hillier, McHugh, and Coxon, 2015). The primary reason behind the increased interest was the rising awareness of the confines of imprisonment concerning rehabilitation and deterrence. Thus, most correctional experts championing the approach have argued that most rehabilitation programs are more relevant and better applied when the offenders are within the community and not in custody (Mills, 2011). Also, community sanctions have been considered lesser forms of punishment that present far less jurisprudence regarding cases where offenders may seek to challenge the approach used in implementing their sentences (Mills, 2011). The approach rose to popularity but not until fifteen years ago when there seemed to be a drastic change of focus. Community sentence as an alternative to custody had undergone a significant decline over the past years, and the trend has maintained a downward spiral (Mews et al., 2015), presenting the possibility that community sentence could be used less or entirely dismissed. Therefore, the