Does Community Service Rehabilitate better than Short‐term Imprisonment?: Results of a Controlled Experiment

Abstract

Community service, along with other new sanctions, has been recommended in many Western countries as an alternative to incarceration over many years. Despite a rich literature on evaluations of so‐called alternative sanctions, random assignment has only exceptionally been used in this field, and (short‐term) imprisonment has never been an option in such designs. The present study tried to assess the comparative effects of community service and prison sentences of up to 14 days, through a controlled experiment in Switzerland in which 123 convicts have been randomly assigned. The results show no difference with respect to later employment history and social and private life circumstances. However, re‐arrest by the police was more frequent among those randomly assigned to prison than among those selected for community service. Prisoners also developed more unfavourable attitudes towards their sentence and the criminal justice system.