Providing a service to the Community

I'm in a toddler play-park in a suburb of Cork city. There are no kids. It’s a Saturday, but cold — grey clouds threaten rain.
The young man power-washing the greasy rubber playground matting, his two companions standing alongside with sweeping brushes, could be council workers or on a Fás scheme. They’re not. They’re doing community service, here because a judge — having considered sending them to prison — decided instead on the alternative: ordering them to do a set amount of hours of unpaid work in the community.