Would you choose jail or community service?

[adrian]

I got the question from this thread (http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?p=68295), and it makes me wonder: if we did something that bad and we had to choose between going to jail for five days or 240 hours of community service, which would you choose?

Since I volunteered my time for six years in the Explorers program for community service, I of course choose to do community service. After I've seen the jails at the Pearl City and main police stations, I don't want to go there, even if its for one second.

[helen]

Assuming one works 8 hours a day for community service that 240 hours is going yield around 30 days.

Doing the 5 days in jail would be taking the fastest route.

[Adri]

Assuming one works 8 hours a day for community service that 240 hours is going yield around 30 days.

Doing the 5 days in jail would be taking the fastest route.

I thought this too, that perhaps she wanted to get it over with as fast as possible. Or maybe it would be more embarrassing for her to do community service where many people might see her and it would be more likely for the media to pick up than if she just stayed in jail for 5 days.

eta: I think I'd pick community service, though. I wouldn't want to spend any time in jail if I could help it.

[manoasurfer123]

I voted jail...

I don't know if I would want her working in my community.

It might be more of a distraction to the community service organization that she would assumably choose...the actual job she might assume might may be better handled and the job actually finished if it was assigned to someone else.

You would think that someone in her status could just "visit hospitals" on the weekends for say 5 hours a day... get it done in 10 hours per week... 40 hours per month and then just 6 months later she would be pau.

From what I've read... it looks like she may be facing tougher punishment in Cali for breaking probation. :eek:

[lavagal]

I think doing community service changes your perspective, takes the "You" out of the center of the universe and makes you put others first. It's one of those things that is probably best experienced willingly as opposed to being forced to do it. I think of Rene Mansho. Not a great example, but I do think that her being in prison and working that gardening detail helped her get down to basics, thinking about soil as opposed to dirty politics.

[tutusue]

I voted jail...

I don't know if I would want her working in my community.
[...]
Hey, Manoa! The question is which would you choose for...YOU! ;)

Michelle probably needs to get her punishment over with asap due to her shooting schedule. And she appears to me to be street wise enough to more than take care of herself at OCCC. Something tells me she doesn't have a warm-fuzzy side that could be brought to the surface with community service.

For me...community service! I used to visit a 'calabash kid' at WCCC. Oh Lordy...whatta horrible way to live.

[timkona]

Liberalism has made jail soft in the last 50 years. 5 days of working out, hot meals 3 times a day, lots of bed rest, no phones ringing, no children screaming, no alarm clock, no traffic jams. Sounds like easy street to me. And yes, I been to jail couple times.

But if I had it my way, you can be damn sure that convicts would do without clothing, warm meals, or blankets and mattresses. Jail should be an ULTRA miserable place. But today's jails have TV, weight room, b-ball courts, hot water showers, and a host of other unnecessary things that were created by "soft-hearts" and paid for by taxpayers.

[manoasurfer123]

Liberalism has made jail soft in the last 50 years. 5 days of working out, hot meals 3 times a day, lots of bed rest, no phones ringing, no children screaming, no alarm clock, no traffic jams. Sounds like easy street to me. And yes, I been to jail couple times.

But if I had it my way, you can be damn sure that convicts would do without clothing, warm meals, or blankets and mattresses. Jail should be an ULTRA miserable place. But today's jails have TV, weight room, b-ball courts, hot water showers, and a host of other unnecessary things that were created by "soft-hearts" and paid for by taxpayers.


Gee Mr. TimKona -

Care to expand on the reason why you quote on quote..."I been to jail couple times..."

Not only an offensive poster...but a criminal maybe???

Or let me guess... you were just visiting a co-hort?

Nah my bad... I bet your an attorney? hahaha

[timkona]

Just bench warrants ....ignoring court was the real problem. Funny how the judge don't like it when you don't show up.

[manoasurfer123]

Pleeeeeeeaaase... the state isn't going to put her in general population. She'll be in protective custody.
Do they have protective custody in Female jails here?

TimKona... care to answer?

[cezanne]

Wow she was given a choice? How thoughtful of the judge. :confused:

If i was the judge I would give her a choice then make her do the other one. :D

Back on topic, I think I would do the community service rather than do the 5 days in jail. I think I would go crazy just being "locked" up for even a day or two.

[MadAzza]

I'd choose jail, then write a column about it, then get a really good tax guy so I could write it off on April 15.

Unless I could count my time in HT, educating the public, as community service.

Haaaaa!!!!

[sinjin]

Just bench warrants ....ignoring court was the real problem. Funny how the judge don't like it when you don't show up.
How many 24 hour periods for your bench warrants?

Maybe jail isn't worse in consideration of the guards who have to deal with these people on a daily basis.

[alohabear]

Do you get to choose community service? Or does the judge do it for you?

[timkona]

How many 24 hour periods for your bench warrants?

One time I got pinched while soaking in my hot tub on a wednesday evening. Turns out there was no room for me in court. And it was a 3 day weekend. So I sat until Tuesday morning, then sat all day Tuesday waiting for paperwork to clear.

[helen]

She already spent a day in jail after she got arrested and that's been credited to her 5 days so basically she is only in jail another 4 days and then it's over for her as far as her legal troubles in Hawaii.

[pzarquon]

Remember, this thread is simply asking, what would you choose, given the choice (and, er, I guess general rants about prison in general). Discussion of Michelle Rodriguez specifically continues here (http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?p=68295).

Anyway. Community service is probably better for your soul. But jail, in this scenario, is better for your dayplanner. If I had to choose, and if I were given the choice, I'd probably pick the slammer.

Best case scenario, it'd be an interesting experience to learn from and tell your friends about. (Right, Tim?) Worst case scenario, it's a genuine horror and absolutely a punishment, which of course was the whole idea, anyway.

[Miulang]

Instead of giving her the choice, the judge should have given her the jail time AND the community service since this wasn't her first offense. Just because she's a "somebody" doesn't mean she should get extra privileges. And as was stated previously, I seriously doubt they put her in with the general population at OCCC. She's probably got her own private cell with room service for meals.

As for me, I'd probablty do the jail time so I could get on with my life quicker.

Miulang

[helen]

Speaking for myself, I would choose the community service, it might play out to over 7 months assuming one was serving those hours as 8 hours a day on one day of a weekend.

Of course then again it depends on what I was doing for the community service.

[Palolo Joe]

Instead of giving her the choice, the judge should have given her the jail time AND the community service since this wasn't her first offense. Just because she's a "somebody" doesn't mean she should get extra privileges.
You don't get both. It's one or the other.

2) For an offense that occurs within five years of a prior conviction for driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor under this section or section 291-4.4 by:
(A) Prompt suspension of license for a period of one year with the absolute prohibition from operating a motor vehicle during suspension of license;
(B) Either one of the following:
(i) Not less than one hundred hours of community service work; or
(ii) Not less than forty-eight consecutive hours but not more than fourteen days of imprisonment of which at least forty-eight hours shall be served consecutively; and
(C) A fine of not less than $500 but not more than $1,500.

Notice it says "either one" when it refers to community service and jail time.

And if you think about it, the judge wasn't doing her any favors by giving her a choice.

It's CHEAPER for the state to send her to community service. They don't have to pay the cost of housing and feeding an inmate.

And her "own cell with room service for meals" sounds a lot more extravagant than it really is. She'll be locked up longer each day than a normal inmate would, for what would be considered her own safety.

To keep this on topic... going to jail for four days is a lot easier than dealing with being in the public eye for months as you perform community service.

[1stwahine]

K-den. My turn.

Everyone knows my worse FEAR.

So, I would choose Community Service. ;)

Mahalo,

Auntie Lynn

[Menehune Man]

Way back in '82. I went through a red (thought it was yellow Osifer?) light and got caught. Okay, I was young and stupid. No insurance and only a permit without a licenced driver present. Went to court and when I explained to the Judge that I didn't have the money to pay the fine, he awarded? me with a couple of days Community Service. I lugged soooo many wheelbarrows full of sand to make a large sandbox in a N. Cal. park. I of course later took my daughter to go play there. Look what Dad did for you honey! :D

Even though that's alot of days, for me I'd have to choose Community Service.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

I actually think that jail is better for your soul, because it shoves humanity right in your face. The problem is, which looks better on your record? A brief stint in jail, or community service?