Lesser sentences for repentant criminals in offing

PLANS are underway to amend the Penal Code to reduce prison sentences for suspected criminals who swiftly confess their offences and apologise, Chief Justice Mohamed Chande Othman has revealed.

"In some countries, sentences for suspects who own up to their crimes are reduced by three quarters," Justice Othman said in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday while officiating at the Africa Alternatives to Imprisonment meeting.

Amendment of the legislation to that effect is expected to among others facilitate the speed of hearing and settling cases at courts of law. 

On the other hand, the CJ said almost 30 per cent of 35,301 convicts are eligible for alternative punishment under the Community Services Act of 2002. The eligible convicts are those serving prison terms of less than three years.

"Between July 2005 and September this year only 6,129 convicted persons have done community services as a penal sanction. As we speak, there are 1,518 persons serving community orders. The majority who are eligible are still within prison walls.

"The full result and end product of the legislation which came into effect almost a decade ago has not been fully exploited by all concerned and yet it can absorb to the community about a third of those incarcerated," Justice Othman told participants at the two-day meeting.

The CJ said alternatives to imprisonment and the use of non-custodial sanctions as a matter of penal policy is an urgent imperative for Africa as they have proved to be more efficient in reforming convicts.

"It is known that some inmates come out of prisons as more hardened criminals than they were before entering it," he told heads of probation and community service departments from Africa who are attending the meeting.

Adding; "Imprisonment is appropriate, fair and just for certain offenders but is not for others, particularly first and non-violent offenders involved in petty or victimless or similar crimes." 

Speaking at the meeting, Chairperson of Tanzania National Community Service Committee, Judge Shabani Lila cited inadequate social service workers and equipment as well as lack of awareness as among challenges facing implementation of the Community Service Act.

"Alternatives to prison sentences will also reduce overcrowding in our correctional facilities," the Chairperson, who is also a High Court Judge told journalists at the sidelines of the meeting.

According to Judge Lila, total population in Tanzania's correctional facilities currently stands at over 35,000 prisoners against the capacity of 29,552.

In a speech read on his behalf by the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs Mwamini Malemi, the Minister, Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi, noted that only few countries in Africa have taken notable initiatives to establish community correctional services.

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