ISSUE OF IMPRISONING PEOPLE FOR PETTY CRIMES

Sir,
 
People have been sent to prison for even the pettiest crimes and one wonders, how much does it take to feed an offender a day? Perhaps it is time we reconsider our sentencing methods, to methods that do not pronounce custodial measures when there is room for non-custodial ones. Clearly some sentences are just too harsh they do not serve the purpose they should but tend to destroy the future of convicted offenders.

Charged

For example an offender charged with insulting his/her grandmother does not in fact deserve to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment but this may happen. On the other hand, one steals a chicken worth E40 and he appears before court and he is sentenced to six months without an option of a fine. Clearly here there is need for our presiding officers to reconsider adopting more non-custodial measures instead of the custodial ones. The current method has led to the establishment of more prisons than necessary and continues to drain government. There are a lot of offenders who have committed crimes as first offenders and do not pose a threat to society if they were to be sentenced to community service or other non-custodial sentences, who are in prison as we speak. I am sure that by now they are angry at the system or see it as unfair, rightly so.

Adopt

That is why mechanisms like restorative justice inclusive of victim-offender mediation, is but one method we can adopt in our justice system. According to the restorative justice mechanism, the offender is given an opportunity to deal with the consequences of the crime committed outside the confines of a court. The offender may at times be given an opportunity to apologise to the victim and pay for the damage caused or occasioned by the victim. However, not all cases may be referred to restorative justice, such as rape or murder. But for cases of petty crime such as chicken theft and others, they do not  have to have a person sentenced to imprisonment. The good thing about restorative justice is that it comes at no cost to the State since the offender will be expected to pay for his crime, and no imprisonment occurs.

Improve

Our system can improve for the better,that is, reduce overcrowding in prisons caused by the strong cooperation of all the stakeholders in the justice system. The money we will save will be put to the running of programmes that seek to promote non-custodial mechanisms as opposed to custodial ones.  We do not want to reach the first world dream with the country’s every corner surrounded by prison institutions, or have them overcrowded beyond limit. There is need therefore for the relevant stakeholders in the criminal justice system to collaborate and find a way to relieve the overcrowding prisons and government at the same time.

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