Want to skip community service? Get the COVID shot, Louisiana judge says
A Louisiana judge is offering offenders an option: Complete court-mandated community service or get a COVID-19 vaccine.
East Baton Rouge Judge Fred Crifasi says some probation candidates can opt to get the shot in lieu of completing their community service hours, multiple outlets report.
Court records obtained by WBRZ show Crifasi, who serves on the 19th Judicial District Court, has offered the opportunity to a handful of offenders as Louisiana sees a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases.
“This is my point of view: Getting vaccinated is a service to the community,” Crifasi told WBRZ in a statement. “We are currently in a serious predicament in Louisiana. So, if a probation candidate is inclined to get vaccinated, I’ll grant credit for that effort toward any requirement of community service. The amount of hours varies and it depends on the person’s circumstances.”
The judge emphasized that getting the jab is an option, “not a mandate.”
The Pelican State recorded its second highest single-day case count on Tuesday, along with a record 1,390 COVID-19-related hospitalizations that marked the biggest single-day increase since March 2020, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
As of Thursday, more than 1.7 million Louisianans have been fully vaccinated against the virus, state health data shows.
Attorney Ashley Greenhouse said Crifasi offered one of her clients the option to get the vaccine this week.
“He was like if you show me, we’ll reset the matter,” Greenhouse told WAFB. “If you’ll come back and show me you’re double vaccinated, fully vaccinated, then I will give you credit for those hours. I think he was really careful that he was not forcing you, he was not coercing you to do it.”
East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore has thrown his support behind the vaccine deals, and pointed out that the spread of coronavirus has made community service opportunities tougher to come by.
“I think it is surely a viable option given where we are at,” he said, according to The Washington Post. “We’d like to keep our courthouse population safe and our inmates safe so this would maybe be one way to do it.”
Offering alternatives to community service is nothing new, Moore added. In the past, he said judges have allowed offenders to donate blood in place of another punishment, according to The Post. Not everyone is on board with Crifasi’s vaccine offer, however.
“I don’t think the government is necessarily the right entity to be involved in me injecting something into my body,” Defense Attorney Jarrett Ambeau said, according to WBRZ. “The point is when a government actor steps in to ask you to do something like, ‘Will I suffer for not doing it?’ And that is the question.”
This story was originally published July 29, 2021 at 11:15 AM.