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.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
RSS