What Is The Penalty For Not Completing Community Service

Tin I do customs service instead of jail in Nevada criminal cases?

Customs service is a standard penalty in many Las Vegas Justice Courtroom and Las Vegas Municipal Court criminal cases. Defendants can usually serve their hours at whatsoever registered non-profit organization in Clark County.

Providing services to the community is likewise a fashion for defendants convicted of a crime to avoid paying a fine: Every hour of volunteering reduces the fine by $10.

Defendants must be careful to complete all the required hours by the due date the judge sets. Otherwise, the judge may lodge them to jail.

In this article, our Las Vegas criminal defense force attorneys discuss:

Food bank, where some defendants may perform community service hours

Defendants may be able to volunteer instead of paying fines.

ane. What is customs service?

It is a mandatory penalty in sure Nevada criminal cases. These defendants must volunteer for a predetermined number of hours at a verified and registered not-profit service agency (501(c)(3)).

Common examples of volunteer opportunities to the Las Vegas community include:

gathering trash by the side of the highway
handing out food at soup kitchens or food banks
cleaning animal shelters

Court-ordered volunteering requires physical and transmission labor. But light duties should exist available for defendants with physical limitations. Defendants practise not go paid for their hours.

Annotation that defendants are non allowed to complete more than than eight (8) hours a day. Even if a defendant is ordered to work 9 hours, he/she will need to complete them over no less than two days. Information technology makes no difference if the accused is willing to work more than than eight hours a mean solar day.¹

ii. When is it imposed?

Community service work is a mandatory penalisation for several Nevada crimes, including:

Battery domestic violence (NRS 200.485)
Graffiti or property defacement (NRS 206.330)
Damage to belongings used for purpose of religion, burial, memorializing the dead, pedagogy, or transportation (NRS 206.125)
Theft of scrap metallic or utility property (NRS 205.267)
Removal, damage, or devastation of certain belongings to obtain bit metal (NRS 202.582).^two

Volunteering in the community is a mandatory punishment for many traffic offenses and juvenile crimes as well.

Every bit discussed in the side by side section, defendants can often opt to exercise service hours instead of paying a fine.

3. Can I serve instead of pay fines?

Las Vegas judges oft permit defendants in criminal cases to complete volunteer work instead of paying a fine. One 60 minutes of service equals $x in fines.³ Therefore, a accused sentenced to pay a $100 fine tin unremarkably do x hours of service instead. Or this same accused could do a combination, such every bit paying $50 and doing 5 hours of service.

Community service is an opportunity for defendants in criminal cases who may take trouble paying their fine to consummate their judgement requirement through service. In short, defendants tin pay with hours instead of dollars.

The menses of community service must not exceed the following:

200 hours for a misdemeanor
600 hours for a gross misdemeanor
ane,000 hours for a felony

4. What is the procedure?

The Las Vegas judge's clerk will give a "referral" to defendants after the judge sentences them to complete community service (or allows them to volunteer in lieu of fines). These defendants must and so take the referral and study to the Clark County Community Service Program window at the Regional Justice Centre, located at 200 Lewis Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89101:

For defendants in criminal cases, the Programme window is located on the second flooring (the phone number is 702-671-3201). For defendants in traffic cases, the Program window is located on the beginning floor (the phone number is 702-671-3283).

Defendants are charged a $25 assessment fee when they first sign up. Notwithstanding, the defendant can ask the judge to waive this fee. The approximate is more than likely to waive information technology if the defendant is choosing to practice service in lieu of paying a fine.

The Programme will supply defendants with timesheets that that must be signed past an agency representative to verify their hours worked. Information technology is the defendant's responsibility to contact the agency and set up dates and times to come up in.

When defendants complete their service hours, it also is their responsibility to return the timesheet to the Program no later than 5 business concern days before the next court date. The Programme volition then verify with the bureau that the timesheet is accurate.⁴ Defendants should also give a copy to their attorney.

5. Can I get an extension?

Nevada defendants are required to complete all their required volunteering hours prior to the engagement that the guess chooses during the sentencing hearing.

When defendants realize they need more time to complete the hours, their attorneys should contact the prosecutor as before long every bit possible. If the prosecutor agrees to an extension, then the approximate is more likely to grant an extension at the next court hearing. In some cases, the defense chaser may even request that the court schedule a special court hearing expressly for the purpose of asking for an extension.

The one thing defendants should never do is to look until the courtroom advent when the service hours are due to ask for an extension. The judge may nevertheless grant the extension, but the judge is nether no obligation to. As explained in the next department, declining to finish serving customs service past the ordered due engagement may crusade the accused to be remanded to jail.

6. What if I exercise not cease?

The Nevada penalty for declining to consummate required community service hours depends on what conditions the gauge originally imposed during the sentencing hearing.

Case: Jaden pleads guilty to a first count of misdemeanor bombardment domestic violence. The judge tells Jaden that he will reduce the charge to disorderly conduct if Jaden successfully completes 48 hours of volunteering, pays a fine, goes to counseling, and avoids more arrests while the example is open. The gauge too orders a six-month "suspended judgement," which means that Jaden will do no jail time equally long as he completes all the terms by the adjacent courtroom engagement.

At the adjacent court date, Jaden reveals he did everything the judge asked except the service. Since Jaden failed to complete all the terms, the judge may captive him for battery domestic violence instead of disorderly conduct. The judge may as well "un-suspend" the jail sentence and transport him to jail for six months.

In the above example, information technology does not matter that Jaden completed nearly all of the requirements. The judge has the discretion to impose the total penalty fifty-fifty if just ane sentencing requirement was not met.

vii. Where can I serve?

The Las Vegas Customs Service Program currently recognizes more than 120 public and private registered non-turn a profit 501C-iii service agencies in Clark County. Some of these include:

Adopt a Rescue Pet
Assistance League
Awakenings
Infant's Bounty
Large Paw Rescue
Blind Centre of Nevada
Tin You Identify Me?
The Churchill Foundation
Apparel for Success Southern Nevada
F.Eastward.A.T. of Southern Nevada
Friends of Red Rock Coulee
Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada
Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary
The Key Foundation
Las Vegas Rescue Mission
Ronald McDonald House Charities Greater Las Vegas
Rotary Society of Las Vegas
Safe Nest
The Shade Tree
Sunshine Nevada

Defendants must complete their service hours at an organisation that the Program approves of. If the defendant wishes to complete their hours elsewhere, they should get permission from the Programme first to brand certain their hours will be counted.

eight. What if I live outside of Nevada?

Las Vegas criminal judges normally allow their non-Clark County resident defendants to consummate whatsoever service requirements in whatever urban center or country they live. But these defendants — or their attorneys — commencement need to ask the estimate'southward permission during open court.

In add-on, defendants should contact the Las Vegas Customs Service Court Plan to make sure it approves of the organization in their hometown where they desire to serve (scroll up to section four for the Program's telephone numbers).

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