2.
His thinking about community service is sort of the reverse of mine: I
think of it (perhaps naively) as being intended for the good of the
accused, a means (in the ideal case) of both providing unwanted
consequences for misdeeds, but also as a way of welcoming the offender
back into society by giving him/her a chance to make a positive
difference. Okay, that’s a rosy picture, but I wonder to what extent
first-time offenders (let’s say) have some experience like that?

The
author flips the table and argues that community service is free labor
used (as in the New York example) to cut paying jobs, and moreover, that
it’s dehumanizing to offer the convicted a choice between prison and
unpaid work.

Regardless of how one feels about that,
I wonder what the author would recommend instead of community service.
Does he just want lighter sentences?