Community service

special condition the court imposes that requires an individual to work–without pay–for a civic or nonprofit organization.

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Additional Sources

Answers.com

Services volunteered by individuals or an organization to benefit a community or its institutions.

Similar work performed by law offenders to serve a sentence in lieu of or in addition to jail time.

The Free (Legal) Dictionary

A sentencing option for persons convicted of crimes in which the court orders the defendant to perform a number of hours of unpaid work for the benefit of the public.

A person convicted of a criminal offense may be required to complete a sentence of community service directly or as an express condition of Probation. Typically, the community service will involve performance at a facility that has been authorized by the court or probation department. Community service is appropriate when it is reasonably designed to repair the harm caused by the offense.

Wikipedia

Community service is an act by a person that benefits the local community. People become involved in community service for many reasons: for some, serving community is an altruistic act, for others it is a punishment.

Alternative Sentencing - In this form of community service, those convicted of crimes are required to perform community services or to work for agencies in the sentencing jurisdiction either entirely or partly in lieu of other judicial remedies and sanctions, such as incarceration or fines.

For instance, a fine may be reduced in exchange for a prescribed number of hours of community service. The convict may be able to choose their community service, which then must be documented by credible agencies, or they may be ordered by the court which services they must do.

Sometimes the sentencing is specifically targeted to the convict's crime, for example, a litterer may have to clean a park or roadside, or a drunk driver being required to appear before school groups to explain why drunk driving is a crime.