With this knowledge at their disposal countries setting up alternatives
for this first time have an opportunity to avoid the mistakes made by the pioneers and
follow the framework set out in the international guidelines. One example where an attempt
is being made to do this is the Czech Republic.
The Czech Penal Code was amended in 1995 to allow community service to
be imposed on convicted offenders. The community service provisions came into effect in
January 1996. Community service may be imposed when a prison sentence of up to five years
could be passed. The judge must take into account the nature of the crime, the personality
of the offender, and must have grounds to believe that the purpose of punishment will be
achieved without sending the offender to prison. It is intended that community service
shall be a genuine alternative to prison and not to other alternatives. So it should only
be imposed when a prison sentence is seriously intended.
A person carrying out community service is required to do unpaid work
of benefit to society for from 50 to 400 hours. The world must be finished within one year
from the date the court imposed the order. The court may also impose appropriate
restrictions on the offender. If the offender fails to lead an orderly life, or
intentionally fails to meet the conditions of the order, the court will convert the whole
order or the remaining part of it into a prison sentence. An offender in this position is
required to serve one day in prison for each two hours of the remaining portion of the
community service order.
A new measure has also been brought in to allow conditional
postponement of prosecution if compensation is paid and other conditions are met.
Mediation is also now an option provided that certain conditions are in
place. The appropriate prison term for the offence must not be more than five years. The
accused person must plead guilty to the offence and make some form of recompense. The
accused person must also deposit with the court a sum of money to be used for the benefit
of the community. Both the accused and the victim must agree with the procedure. The court
must be satisfied with such a settlement of the case.
In order to implement these new sanctions a probation service is being
established. The first probation officers were appointed in January 1996. They are
described as "higher clerks of the court" and have been given special training
in how to carry out community service and mediation.
Another new development comes from Southern Africa. The experimental
community service scheme in Zimbabwe started in 1992 in response to a rapidly rising
prison population. 60 per cent of the prisoners were serving sentences of 3 months or
less. So they were minor offenders. This had cost implications. In 1980 the total prison
budget in Zimbabwe was $1.2 million. In 1994 it was $10.8 million.
Clearly this money was being spent on a population of largely petty
offenders. There was then set up a National Committee on Community Service, chaired by a
High Court judge. The required legislation was introduced. The members of the Committee
made contact with Penal Reform
International (PRI) and PRI
worked with them to obtain the funds from the European Union for a pilot scheme. From the
beginning of the scheme up to August 1996 nearly 12,000 orders had been made on offenders
likely to get prison sentences of up to one year.
Instead of the prison sentence, offenders are given an opportunity to do community
service work in a social welfare organisation, doing practical work of benefit to the
community. The default rate is 6 per cent. The cost per month of prison is roughly $56.
The cost of a month of community service is between $10 and $20 a month. The prison
population, which had been rising, has stabilised in spite of rising levels of
unemployment and crime. High levels of satisfaction about the scheme have been registered
amongst magistrates, supervising agencies and participants. The Zimbabwean government is
willing to take on the funding at the end of the donor-funded period and to extend the
project to encompass the early release of people from prison. So far there has been no
backlash against the scheme from the public. The European Union is now funding a programme
of replication of the scheme for four more African states, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi and
Zambia with five more countries in view for a similar experiment.
