240hrs of Community Service or 5 days of Jail: Which would you do?

[LynneSin]

Poll question: 240hrs of Community Service or 5 days of Jail: Which would you do?

http://tmz.aol.com/article2/_a/michelle-rodriguez-to-do-jail-time/20060425175209990001

"Lost"'s Michelle Rodriguez plead guilty to DU and opted to serve the 5 days in jail instead of 240 hours of community service. Personally I think that's just nuts. Sure, the 5 days in jail is quicker to do but hell, I don't want my ass sitting in jail somewhere.

So anyhow - if you plead guilty to a DUI (if you were dumb enough to do one) which would you choose - 5 days in Jail or the 240 hours of community service?

[Burma Jones]

1. 240 hours is six work weeks

[_testify_]

2. The service

find a charity and slip 'em a few hundred to sign off on the hours without actually serving them.

If I'm scummy enough to drink and drive, this shouldn't be a problem.

[LostinVA]

3. I can't believe she's shot her career in the foot like she has

She gets on a hit TV series, acts like a diva, gets a DUI soon after another incident, then SMIRKS in her mug shot. I've also liked her, but I;'m a bit "meh" now....

And, I'd do the 240 CS hours.... guess she'd rather do time than help people. I'll give Halle Berry that much -- she did unglamorous community service, did a good job, and didn't act like she was too good for it.

[MissMillie]

4. Probably the jail time, unless...

I could continue doing the community service that I already do and have that count toward the service.

[leftofthedial]

5. 240 hours would take forever to complete

it would drag on and on and on and on . . .

BUT, good things can come fro community service.

[ohiosmith]

6. Do the time and get it over with.

[madinmaryland]

7. Who is michelle rodriguez?

And what does Tom Cruise think of this matter?

:shrug:

[JohnKleeb]

8. She's an actress believe she was in the residential evil movie

and was in that girls surfing movie too. Tom Cruise is going to have a Scientology Prison Ministry ;).

[ronnykmarshall]

16. He thinks she's glib.

She thinks he needs to fuck off.

[tjwmason]

9. Community Service.

Mainly because I think the gaol terms of that length are less than pointless - indeed in many cases are actually harmfull to the rehabilitative process.

[In_The_Wind]

10. community service

[bigwillq]

11. Jail (nt)

[Brigid]

12. Community Service

At least then you'd be doing something useful.

[DS1]

13. The community service photos could be a career killer

and and you think she USED to spend too much time scowling? Wait till you see the ex-con version :eyes:

[democracyindanger]

17. Bingo

1 day in jail, maybe somebody gets a hold of your booking shot. Not that big a deal, as long as you don't look like Nick Nolte.

240 hours of community service? In total, that's more than a month of 8-hour days. Plenty of opportunities to catch you picking up trash on the side of the highway.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

14. I'd do 1000 hours of community service over one day in jail.

[Iniquitous Bunny]

15. Jail

I'd just bring some cigs and keep my mouth shut. No problem.

[NJ Democrats]

18. Jail

It's quick and over with. 240 hrs. God that will drag on and on

[GoddessOfGuinness]

19. Community service...Jail is such a waste

I really think it should be reserved for those who are violent or those who've already racked up 5 years worth of community service.

[Catchawave]

20. Community Service looks better on a resume

than sitting on one's ass for 5 days :D For the average person?

[JVS]

33. But you get no street cred from that!

[DanCa]

21. Community Service

I believe in helping people and that the community work will whipe my karma slate clean.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

22. I would do the jail

because it would be a new experience. I can survive anything for five days.

Would I have to be somebody's bitch, do you think?

T-Grannie

[LostinVA]

24. The question is: would you want to be someone's bitch?

Oh gods... that gave me a scary visual.....

[TallahasseeGrannie]

26. LOL

[SmileyBoy]

23. Take me to jail.

You wouldn't believe how hard it was for me to do 24 hours of community service back in high school, let alone doing 240.

In case you're wondering, back in high school, I had to do 24 hours of the stuff in order to waive off all my outstanding detentions.

[Debi]

25. at eight hours a weekend that's 30 weeks - almost seven months

I guess that'd make it a lesson learned!!! :(

[NewWaveChick1981]

27. If you do the community service, no jail time shows on your record

If it were me, I'd much rather work things out to do community service. I'd rather help the community and keep my record as clean as I could (although there would always be the conviction there). It's a sticky situation no matter how you look at it.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

28. Jail.

Hell, you could take your vacation time and no one would even have to know unless they went snooping for it.

[Spider Jerusalem]

29. 240 hours= 6 hours/day, probably spread out over 40 weekends.

THis is a no-brainer for me...I'd do the five days and get it over with.

[Xithras]

30. This is a question that REALLY depends on where you live.

I've been in jail. I spent a few days of my exuberant youth locked up in the county honor farm after drunkenly getting into a "physical argument" with a police officer who was trying to break up a party I was attending. The truth? It was no big deal. The facilities were well kept, the guards were nice, the violent guys were kept isolated from us "softies" (mostly DUI's, ticket skippers, and other no-risk offenders), and we had plenty of reading material. My cell mate, for the whole 5 days I was there, was a guy convicted of passing a bad rent check to his landlord to stave off eviction for a few days...because his six kids had nowhere else to go. I spent most of the five days reading books from the jail library so it went by fairly quickly.

On the other hand, location really matters here. If you were somewhere like New York, where the county jail houses inmates on floating barges and cells are overcrowded and mix violent and nonviolent criminals, I might suggest going with the community service. It isn't worthwhile to become bubba's playtoy just to get it done and overwith, and spending time with drug dealing bangers and accused murderers isn't exactly good for ones health.

As for how it looks on your record, it really doesn't matter. A conviction is a conviction in the eyes of the law and potential employers who might check. The disposition doesn't really matter.

[cobalt1999]

31. Having done a few days in jail...

Community Service! Hands down! Jail sucks, every hour felt like a day.

[JVS]

32. If the prison is a safe place I'd go there. If it's straight out of OZ, no

[Dangerously Amused]

34. What would you rather hear

... from a someone you are considering to become your new: date, babysitter, handyman, house sitter, insurance salesman, auto mechanic, in-law, etc.?



Either,


"Yeah, I got in some trouble. But I worked it off with community service."

OR

"Yeah, I've done jail time."



To me, community service connotes a minor incident and a willingness to take responsibility and to help others by giving back to the community. But a jail sentence, no matter the duration, gives the impression of a serious crime, and a defendant who couldn't be trusted with the responsibility and maturity required of a comittment to community service.

I know this is not always the case, but without complete case information these are the first impressions for most people. And the problem is that a lot of people aren't going to give you the benefit of the doubt, they will just make a quick background check and see a conviction with either "community service" or "jail" attached, and judge you based off of their first impressions.

[calico1]

35. Community Service.

I don't want to sit in jail. And community service is at least doing something useful. And if you are dumb enough to drive drunk then 6 weeks is getting off easy. You could have hurt someone.

[Oeditpus Rex]

36. The *real* question here is

could you go five days without DU? Indeed, without the internets at all?

:scared:

[Guy Fawkes]

37. I like the first sentence of your post...

""Lost"'s Michelle Rodriguez plead guilty to DU"