Community Service

Too often community service as imposed as conditions of probation is simply punitive drudgery designed as an alternative to incarcerating a person. Lloyd believes that a judge should encourage the parties to explore community service options with pro-social organizations in the accused’s own community in order to help integrate him positively into society. In other cases, community service should be performed in a manner that makes a positive difference in the community a person has wronged. In appropriate cases, requiring an individual to do fewer hours of community service and participate in job training or educational programs may be more likely to address the issue of a person’s future criminality, even though it may appear to be less punitive than seems to be warranted.

Lloyd has noted that while community service in the form of beach cleanup is available to probationers who live in our coastal communities, those in the inland areas of the County are frequently required to work with CalTrans picking up trash on the side of the freeways. With the mountains relatively accessible to much of the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys, Lloyd is interested in exploring partnerships between the courts, environmental and service groups and government land managers that would link appropriate probationers – especially young ones – with trail maintenance and watershed improvement projects in our local mountains. Not only would this work contribute to something that residents from all over the County might benefit from, but working productively in our mountains would provide these challenged young people with a positive change of perspective.