I’ve drafted an article about how some nonprofits and probation officers are allowing people who are court-ordered to do community service to pay a fee or make a donation as a substitute for actually volunteering. But I’d like to ask for feedback on one part of the paper.

I wanted a list of some of the consequences of this practice of allowing court-ordered volunteers to make a donation instead of actually doing service. But I have just three points:

• People becoming skeptical that community service is actually being done and believing those that receive court-ordered community service are getting “an easy way out” of real consequences for their actions.
• Inequity, as some people still have to do actual community service because they cannot afford to make a financial donation, and the donation being asked for is often less than the fine the court issued and offered to waive in return for community service.
• In the case of nonprofits offering legitimate online community service, a growing belief that virtual volunteering is merely someone watching videos or producing text that is supposedly their self-reflections – something that could easily be generated in seconds by artificial intelligence – which undermines the credibility of actual virtual volunteering, such as transcribing scanned, hand-written historical documents, redesigning web sites to that they are accessible for people with disabilities, correcting captions on videos, etc.

Are there more consequences of allowing this practice? I would love your thoughts. Please know that, in sharing them here, I might include them in the final paper, though I won’t be identifying contributors, unless I have the contributor’s permission to do so and feel that it’s necessary (such as for quotes).

Here are all my blogs to date regarding some aspect of court-ordered community service.

July 1 2026 update: the article has been published in the Engage Journal! This is a subscription-based journal, so to access, you will either have to pay a month’s subscription, which is just $5 (and gives you access to all of the journal’s articles for 30 days), pay for a year’s subscription, or visit your local public library or nearest university library and see if they have a subscription. I encourage probation officers, court judges, anyone working in the juvenile justice system and others who are involved in court-ordered community service to read this article.

July 27 update: Crystal Washington, head of a nonprofit in Texas, CHARM North Texas, was arrested and booked into the Wichita County Jail on Tuesday, July 21, and charged with nine counts of Tampering with a Governmental Record to Defraud or Harm. According to the affidavit, on October 13, 2025, a deputy with Wichita County Sheriff’s Office was told a probationer had reported to her probation officer that Washington was falsifying Community Service Records (CSR) submitted to the Wichita County Adult Probation Office. CSRs are used to verify hours of community service performed by each probationer.

According to the affidavit, the probationer stated that Washington was charging $12 per hour, with a minimum of 10 hours, for every hour assigned to probationers by the court. On November 13, 2025, the deputy spoke with a probationer, who stated that she paid Washington $120 for every 10 hours of community service hour that was reported as worked, according to the affidavit. The affidavit states that the probationer also stated she never performed any community service work for CHARM North Texas.

The deputy stated he received a list of probationers who completed their community service hours through CHARM North Texas from January 2020 through July 2025 and that numerous records had indicated that multiple probationers had worked their hours at Meals on Wheels. When the deputy contacted Meals on Wheels in both Wichita Falls and Burkburnett, both stated they have policies in place that prevent probationers from performing community service with their organizations.

On December 9, 2025, the deputy met with another probationer, who stated he paid Washington $12 per hour for 10 hours of credit for the month of August 2025, according to the affidavit. Washington submitted a CSR at the Wichita County Adult Probation Office indicating that this probationer worked 10 hours in August, with five of those hours credited as Meals on Wheels work on Saturday, August 16, 2025. The deputy verified that Meals on Wheels does not operate on Saturdays. This probationer denied working any of the credited hours and instead paid Washington, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit states that one entry on the mutual agreement with CHARM North Texas stated, “It is prohibited for agencies/organizations and their staff members providing CSR opportunities to solicit gifts, goods, money and/or personal favors from participants in exchange for credit for CSR hours worked.”

Story 1 and Story 2 about this case.

Once you’ve read the article I did for Engage, the question is – how much longer will this practice be illegal?