A legislative committee yesterday approved revisions to the Criminal Code that would allow courts to post convicts serving a jail term of less than six months for community service. The amendment will go into effect on Sept. 1 if it passes the legislature.
Deputy Minister of Justice Wu Chen-huan (吳陳鐶) said it was unfair to throw poor people in jail because they could not afford to pay fines. Community service was an alternative form of punishment that gives back to society, he said.
The Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee agreed to let convicts trade six hours of community service for each day of their sentence.
Convicts receiving a probationary sentence of less than two years can provide community service of between 40 hours and 240 hours to government agencies, government institutions, administrative corporations, schools, charity groups or communities, the amendments said.
There are exceptions, however. Convicts will not perform community service if they receive a sentence of more than six months plus fines or are considered incapable of performing community service because of physical or mental problems.
Those who refuse to perform community service without appropriate reason or fail to complete the community service before the deadline would be required to perform prison labor.
The committee attached a resolution to the amendment that would require the convict to perform community service only at the institutions under the jurisdiction of the court handing down the verdict.
Although most committee members were in favor of the amendment, some expressed concern over the effectiveness of community service.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) said there should be a screening mechanism in place to make sure that white-collar criminals were not assigned to provide community service at financial institutions and sex offenders not placed in schools.
Wu said convicts should be screened to ensure that the right people were sent to the right places, adding that interested government agencies must register and private institutions must apply.
KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) said it was unfair to ask convicts to perform only six hours of community service each day, while regular working hours were eight hours a day.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said he was worried community service would become a tool for celebrity convicts to seek personal gain.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai