Some people think that criminals shouldn't be sent to prison but foster to do community work instead. To what extent do you agree?

In most countries, people who committed a crime and faced the trial are put behind bars to serve time in prison. Nevertheless, some individuals argue that those who committed a petty crime should not be held in the jail but made to do community work without any payment. I tend to agree that crimes are graded differently and certain prisoners could be given non-custodial sentences. People commit crimes owing to different reasons, which can be poverty, hunger, or even living in a deprived family. In such cases, when a person does not have previously recorded crimes, putting on probation or being made to work as a volunteer for social causes will have better impact than harsh imprisonment. According to the latest statistics, more than a half of juvenile delinquents, who were sent to prison to serve a sentence, became repeat offenders and had at least three incidences of petty crimes in sequence. Hence, we should consider community work as a sort of rehabilitation for such people which can help them to be beneficial for the community and get back to normal. On the other hand, some people claim that there are some felony crimes which cannot be tolerated and that brutal criminals have to face the severe sentence without letting them out. That is quite sensible that this type of criminals cannot be allowed to do any work outside the prison because they are extremely dangerous for the society. To conclude, I suppose that not all criminals can rehabilitate. Teenagers or someone who committed a misdemeanor could be given a chance to do some voluntary work so to redeem instead of being sent to prison and ruin their lives.