Family and Friends Forum

I understand your worry as my son is also shy and quiet. His probation though was a positive experience for him and one which helped him grow in confidence.

As part of his sentencing my son had to complete 300 community hours work. For this he was placed in a group with other males some of whom had also committed sexual offences and others who probation had assessed as unlikely to cause any problem or threat to the others in the group. No one asked about anyone else's offences. A couple of people chose to disclose their offence but other than that nothing was mentioned.

My son only found out that probation carefully select the groups when he asked if he could join the weekend group to do some additional hours. The probation officer then told him that some of the people in the weekend group were loud and boisterous and that she didn't feel it was in my sons best interest to join that group.

I found it very reassuring that the probation service put people into the groups which they think are right for the individual and that the safety and well being of our loved ones is being taken into account.

Hi Ocean,



What did your sons community service involve?

I am hoping that this is what my son will get, but he will be so resistant to this kind of punishment because of his nerves and his quiet shy personality.



Thanks

Hi Wanderer, the judge knew my son had lost his job and decided that sitting at home wasn't going to do him any good. His case hit the media the same day as his plea hearing and again on the day of sentencing which resulted in him hiding away at home. He received a 2 year suspended sentence but it was the 300 community hours that forced him to leave the house and mix with others.

The work was manual work, on one day a week he was working on waste land clearing brambles and digging the land to make an orchard. On another day each week they were working on the outside of a church building scraping paint from railings and painting the outside of the walls.

He was initially given 2 days by probation but was able to increase this to 3 days when probation had enough people (I think it was 6) to start up another protected group. I can't be sure but I believe that most people in this small 'Friday' group were there because of sexual offences.

They would meet at the probation offices in the morning and then be taken by mini bus to the site. This meant the groups couldn't be any bigger than the number of people that could fit in the minibus. They'd have one probation supervisor with them who was also the person who drove the minibus. They'd stop at set times for breaks and lunch which they had to take with them. When they were working on the waste land they'd have no access to toilets so they'd have to find somewhere discrete for a wee but if one of them needed more than a wee they'd all have to get back in the minibus and drive to the nearest local toilets which amused my son.

If they were working on the church building and it rained they'd be invited into the church and given warm drinks, if they were working on the waste land and it rained they'd all get back in the mini bus to keep dry. My son did his hours across a freezing cold winter when there was a fair amount of rain and not being one for small talk he found the time spent in the mini bus or in the church hall boring and long.

I hope that gives you a bit of an insight.

My child has just completed his community service...200 hours. He is also quiet and shy and was looked after by the officers there. He worked in an allotment, planting bulbs, cutting grass, general clearing. He also painted community buildings and a church. He did a variety of things. He also completed some of the hours doing online courses at home. I think he was told he could do up to 40 hours doing the online courses. Hope that helps.

My oh went outwith our area to complete his community service some chose to disclose but not all did and nobody asked him, he did 180 hours quite quickly as took 2 weeks off work also to complete it quick

Thank you Ocean and Broken, both of you have given really helpful advice.

How old are your sons and what were their charges?

My son is 22 and was 20 at the time of the first offence, but he got arrested in January this year.

He will also lose his job in the next week or so, more of a career than a job, something he went to uni for and should have been in the job for years. But here we are.

He was supposed to return for the first bail next week, but the Officer has rung him today to say it has been extended for 3 months and will most likely be extended until September after that.

I am struggling on how to support him at the moment, but we have bigger worries to come in the from of court, sentencing and what that looks like afterwards. But if I can find put as much as I can, then perhaps I can prepare him for some of it.

It is so upsetting as this isn't what he is like, he is isolated, hardly a friendship group and his quiet and sensitive,it is awful. I am in no way condoning what he did at all, but I have to support him.

My son is very sociable and can chat to anyone, but he said that everyone on community service kept their heads down - there was virtually no chat and certainly no discussion of what they'd done to be there.

Hope that helps x

Hiya.



So hubby was given 240 hours community service and 2 years suspended sentence.



He started with 2 days a week then upped it to 3 days a week. He said but daunting at the start but got ok.



They asked a place to be done not far from home which he said no, so was working at a church clearing rubble and cutting grass.



At the end of it he got on well with the probation who was running it.

He also did 30 hours of online stuff and even helped others how to set it up.



xx

Hi Wanderer, my son was 27 when he was arrested so a little older than your son.

Hi Granny1, I know I'd previously said that my son wasn't asked why he was on community service but I had a chat with him last evening and he said he was actually asked by someone from his community service probation group what he'd done and he simply said that he'd prefer not to say and the person asking replied with 'fair enough' and nothing more was said about it. He also said that probation had said he could always make something up like fighting etc if he found that easier than avoiding the question if asked.

He also said that the supervisors avoid using anyone's surname to help protect anonymity. Each morning they would have to sign a sheet of paper but no surnames were listed on it.