AMMAN — Secretary General of the Jordanian Judicial Council Ali Al-Museimi said that
since the ratification of the amendments to the Penal Code, which came into
effect on June 24 this year, data shows an increase in the number of court
rulings that impose alternatives to punishments.
اضافة اعلان
“In the first six months of 2022, 414 sentences have
been issued imposing alternative punishments,” Museimi told Jordan News,
adding that they “increased to 2,002 by the end of September”.
According to Museimi, alternative sentencing for
misdemeanors was introduced in the Penal Code in 2017; as such, “judges can
rule on one or more alternative sanctions instead of custodial measures, the
implementation of which is supervised by the Ministry of Justice”.
He noted that “the judiciary is moving toward a new
approach in criminal justice based on reform and rehabilitation, rather than
punishment. The aim is to reform, rehabilitate, and reintegrate first-time
offenders into society”.
”One of the monitoring parameters used to ensure the
effectiveness of the penalties is having a periodic reports assessing the
impact of the sanction imposed on the behavior of the convict, and their
rehabilitation.
“The Community Sanctions Directorate at the Ministry
of Justice supervises and monitors the implementation of the sanction. Liaison
officers are assigned by partner institutions to monitor the implementation of
an alternative sanction through periodic reports to ensure the proper
implementation thereof,” he added.
According to Museimi, the implementation of the
non-custodial measures is based on social, economic, and psychological studies.
As such, “we must identify the cause of the crime,
as well as the reason that prompted the perpetrator to commit the crime”, he
added.
Museimi said that “the recent amendments to the
Penal Code were based on the results of an impact assessment study on the
implementation of community sanctions during 2017 to 2022, in which successes,
obstacles, and challenges were identified and provided key recommendations formulated
as part of the recently endorsed amendments”.
According to the amendments, the court has the
authority to issue an alternative sanction for a case of misdemeanor, and in
“felonies not against a person where a sentence is reduced to be one year”, he
said, adding that the “we were given the authority for the first time in
misdemeanors. Even if the judgment is final, and during the execution of
misdemeanors, the court may replace the custodial penalty imposed with one or
more of the alternative measures mentioned in the law”.
Museimi said that according to the amendments, “the
four main categories of alternative sanctions that are currently in effect are
community service, community monitoring, electronic monitoring, and banning the
convict from visiting specific places for a period of time”.
According to him, “a well-researched and proper
implementation of a comprehensive and integrated approach to alternative
sanctions would maximize the benefit for society and avoid the negative impact
of custodial measures”.
One of the main objectives of alternative sanctions is to
reduce over-crowding in rehabilitation centers and lower the financial cost of
in-mates, he said, stressing that “we need to work on finding long-term
solutions and rehabilitation programs”.ag
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