Their offers include visiting him in the prison if he so desires, bringing him his favorite food and taking care of his children if he has any. He also has the right to pick the prison of his choice, his favorite furniture and other amazing things to compensate him for his loss of freedom.
One might say one wished one was in prison in Sweden. This is of course a luxury we will never have as we do not live in the Scandinavian country. However, we may reduce the hardship of prisons through what is called alternative or substitute punishments.
Studies do support such punishments and do not limit it to a certain judge. All judges can offer them when the punishment is not already predetermined according to Shariah. Substitute punishments have support in Shariah.
Minister of Justice Muhammad Abdul Karim Al-Issa explained that the idea of substitute punishments is not intended to replace prison in every case.
He said sometimes prison might be the appropriate punishment in certain cases, while in others substitute punishments might be the solution. He said it all boils down to the discretion of the judge.
The minister said the judge has access to wide-ranging powers provided his ruling does not go against Shariah teachings or the law and he must in all cases give convincing reasons why he has chosen a substitute punishment as it will be upheld or rejected by the supreme court.
The idea of substitute punishments is based on the philosophy that it may achieve good results and prevent vice. Prison is not meant to harm or agonize prisoners. What does society gain if a criminal is put behind bars?
We can, instead, order him to pay a fine or perform some community service useful to society.
The idea of substitute punishments requires the judge to be convinced that it would be more useful to society to order the prisoner to give something back to the community rather than lock him up, crowding prisons with inmates and spending money needlessly on their food and health care.
The minister said all judges were convinced by the necessity of resorting to substitute punishments when there is no clear Shariah ruling. We only need to expand our application of substitute punishments, he concluded.
