Around 60% of people sentenced to prison each year are convicted for non‑violent crimes.
Violent offences make up about 39‑40%.
This suggests that there is a sizeable group of incarcerated people who might be eligible under a policy like yours (non‑violent offenders).
Community sentences are used, but their popularity has declined
“Community Work” used to be very common; in 2010, it made up ~52.9% of community‑based sentences or orders. By 2019 that had dropped to ~24.9%.
Released prisoners have fairly high reoffending / reconviction rates. For example, from the 2023‑24 Corrections… Read more annual report: about 26.5% of those released from prison are reimprisoned within 12 months.
For people starting community‑based sentences, the reoffending / reconviction is lower, but still significant. For instance, those starting community sentences have lower imprisonment rates than those released from prison.
One specific: people who started Community Work in 2002/03, over 48 months follow-up: ~16% ended up convicted of a new offence and started a prison sentence.
There were more than 660,000 hours of community work completed in 2023 by offenders under community sentences.
Community work sentences can range from 40 to 400 hours. The limits on how fast they can be done are: up to 10 hours/day, up to 40 hours/week; also rules about completing at least 100 hours every six months (or remaining balance) if sentence is longer.
From what the data shows:
There are many non‑violent offenders in prison (so that part is plausible in principle).
Community sentences / community work are already an established practice.
Community work has some effectiveness: lower imprisonment and reimprisonment for community‑based sentences, though not negligible reoffending.
But current community work sentences are limited in hours, and there are limits to how “daily” or intense the requirement is. So the “daily community service” piece is more stringent than what we see commonly.
