From Sept. 1, convicted felons sentenced to six months or less in prison could be released on probation and allowed to do community service instead, the Ministry of Justice said yesterday.
Such convicts would provide supplementary labor in social services and charity work, the ministry said.
Regulated by an amendment to the Criminal Code (刑法) passed by the Legislative Yuan earlier this month, the plan would reduce public spending and alleviate overcrowding in the country’s prisons, officials said.
The ministry estimates that about 1,000 inmates on probation would work in social service organizations each year, translating into more than NT$800 million (US$23.67 million) in free labor.
However, the program is seen as likely to challenge the penal system’s capacity to supervise convicted criminals serving alternative prison terms.
“There will not be enough prosecutors and probation officers to oversee these people,” said Liu Cheng-wu (劉承武), a chief prosecutor with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
Against this backdrop, Liu said, the prosecution would open the program to first-time offenders and those convicted of economic crimes, but not to repeat offenders, drug dealers, or people convicted of violence or abuse.
While social service organizations welcomed the plan, they expressed reservations over whether such felons could serve as good social workers.
Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉), chairman of the nonprofit Child Welfare League Foundation, said the convicts would have to be given special training before being allowed to work at any social service organization.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS