The phenomenon of prison overcrowding and anticipating the future of alternatives to non-custodial sanctions: Working for the benefit of the community as an example

Abstract

Countries have recognized the spread of criminal phenomena and have attempted to combat them through various means and measures. In recent decades, they have increasingly turned to non-custodial sanctions, primarily imposing them as original the basic penalties for most crimes in their criminal laws. However, these sanctions quickly led to a crisis in modern criminal policy, prompting a shift towards exploring alternatives to imprisonment. These alternatives include fines, community service, electronic monitoring, criminal mediation, reconciliation, and others.
This study specifically discusses one of these alternatives, namely, community service, and attempts to forecast anticipates its future. The goal is to address and approach the problems of prison overcrowding, slow resolution of criminal cases, and to avoid the negative effects of freedom-restricting sanctions, especially those of short duration. Additionally, the study aims to facilitate the reintegration of offenders into society.
The study highlights a legislative inflation in the field of prison and detention penalties across various criminal laws, resulting in several drawbacks. These include the impact of this inflation on prison capacity, hindrance to prison reform plans, and an increase in state expenditures on the prison sector. The study recommends proactive solutions to make community service an alternative to custodial sanctions, such as establishing specialized legislative committees to create a new system for non-custodial alternatives, including community service. This system could be incorporated into criminal laws or enacted as an independent law applied by the courts, in accordance with the principles of the legitimacy of crimes and punishments.