Due to the unsatisfactory efficiency of institutional punishment and the evident shortcomings of imprisonment, efforts have focused on the development of an extraterritorial system of sanctioning offenders. Due to the prisons’ overcrowdedness, ineffectiveness of prison sentences as sanctions and a large number of recidivists there was a need for seeking alternative sanctions. Alternative sanctions development was recorded in the second half of the twentieth century, primarily in America and England. The first idea was to achieve integration through "civil society". Their successful implementation depends on the person who performs them. The paper emphasizes one of the various alternative sanctions, work for the common good. Alternative sanctions are generally accepted in contemporary legislation for common good. Its rise is the result of efforts to reduce short-term prison sentences. It allows the realization of all punishment purpose with emphasis on reparation and reintegration. The full reform of Croatian legislation in the 1990s also included the area of executive criminal law. Then there was the introduction of work for common good in the area of alternative sanctions, primarily as a substitute for a prison sentence and later a fine. This paper covers the development of the application of work for the common good since its inception in the world, then in Croatia. Changes to the provisions of the Criminal Laws of 1997, 2003 and 2011 have been described. Also, the advantages and disadvantages of the work for the common good are listed as well as the role of probation officers; this being an important factor in the process of performing work for the common good.