Working community service as prision alternative: between acceptance and rebuff

Abstract

As a result of the progressive increase of the imprisoned population in Spain, the debate about alternative measures to prison and, particularly, about the one which proposes working in benefit of community services, has acquired a renewed interest during the last years. Starting from the existing theories about the penalty, the purpose is to show that after more than ten years of the present Penal code approval, although having lately experienced an outstanding expansion, such measure has not yet reached its maximum development. And that in spite of the positive effects already demonstrated in other different countries of our environment in regard to its major efficacy in the social reinsertion of the prosecuted people and, consequently, in the diminution of the prison occupancy density.