It's not volunteer work if the school, fraternity or sorority requires it of you.
It's not voluntary if it's a requirement to get into the school/frat.
It's more like free forced labor that most of the time is not even needed by the non-profit but hey the kids need certain hours so let's make the move garbage from one trash can to the other all day and if they finish early make them move it back.
"let's make the move garbage from one trash can to the other all day and if they finish early make them move it back"
Perhaps you were going for humor but locally some (mostly religious) high schools have mandatory required volunteer (LOL) graduation requirements, and criminal court "community service" also means work at the same recycling center, so you end up with a weird and probably very unhealthy mixture of ex-cons and teens at the recycling center basically "doing time" moving stuff from one dumpster to another all day. The weirdest part of the whole situation is its perceived as a social good.
My friends and I got community service for trespassing a few years back. We were assigned to a building material recycling center. Some of the people sentenced to work there were doing the minimum work required to not be reported, but there were a bunch of people, including my friends and I, who genuinely saw it as an opportunity to help out. We worked hard and put in as much effort as we would if it was our normal job. Would I have rather been making money or doing something fun with my friends? Of course. But I committed a crime and this was my punishment. Except I could actually see how my punishment was benefitting society, unlike being jailed or fined. Plus, I actually learned a little bit about different types of wood, and that there is actually a building material recycling center where you can buy a bunch of cool house stuff for cheap.
Otherwise sheltered teens likely have at least enough family resources and support that a couple hours of supervised contact isn't going to turn them into rampaging criminals, and dealing with people who aren't on a track straight into college and then into elite employment will make them more grounded.
Well, the teens learn some discipline and following orders. The criminals learn not to do whatever it is that got them community service. Everyone wins.
You make it sound so black and white when in reality everything is gray.
I happen to know a few "criminals" and they're not bad people they just choose to do shady stuff. Although I've met a few that i instinctively distanced myself from because you can tell they're always out to trick you or get something from you it's usually not that simple.
Some of them were even punished way out of proportion to the severity of their crime.
I don't know if most kids have the skill to deal with these people and since the crafty ones come off as overly friendly they might even get lured in.
It's probably not idea to mix clueles teens with street smart criminals.
I think the fear is the mixture. So you take impressionable youth and force them under legal obligation to spend more time with elders of their socioeconomic group who selected a life of crime often than time spent with their own parents. What could possibly go wrong? Optimistically they'll be scared straight, but ...
It's not like they're sending people sentenced to 40 years hard labor for robbing a bank to community service at the recycling center. They're probably mixing with people who got first-offense drunk driving or disturbing the peace charges.
People volunteer for all sorts of reasons that fit your description -- b/c they're required by a school/frat, b/c it's a requirement (or even an elective) to earn a badge in boy/girl scouts, b/c they feel pressured by others in their community (e.g. in a church), b/c their parents made them.
You may feel that some (maybe even most) people's motivations are less pure than others, but that doesn't make their actions "not volunteer work".
It's not voluntary if it's a requirement to get into the school/frat.
It's more like free forced labor that most of the time is not even needed by the non-profit but hey the kids need certain hours so let's make the move garbage from one trash can to the other all day and if they finish early make them move it back.