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.
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