This paper examines the conditions of the emergence of innovations in contemporary Western criminal justice systems in light of the change to the legal status of a criminal sanction. In 1994, the community service sentence was an alternative measure in Belgium, but in 2002, this sanction became a punishment. Although such change is often interpreted with skepticism, this study reveals how such change enhances the notion of punishment. Modern penal systems generally give no credit to the community service order and are hostile to any qualitative evolution. Nevertheless, traces of innovation appear in the creation, the application, and the organization of the community service sentence. Four scenarios were identified: a conventional scenario, a formal scenario, a pedagogical scenario, and an innovative scenario.