A judge of Qatif summary court has sent a Saudi youth to work at the emergency ward of a general hospital for a month instead of sending him to the general prison to serve his term.
The alternative sentence was warmly welcomed by Director General of Prisons Ali bin Hussein Al-Harithy, who sent a letter to the judge, Mutraf bin Sulaiman Al-Bishr, thanking him for the ruling that would help youths to take the correct path.
“The Directorate General of Prisons has been calling for substitute punishments. It is currently working with a number of other concerned parties to establish a permanent mechanism for this kind of rulings,” he said.
Informed sources told Arab News that many government bodies, including the Justice Ministry and the Directorate General of Prisons, were working with private organizations such as the Committee to Care for Convicts and Their Families and the Human Rights Commission to adopt alternative sentences in courts.
The sources believed that the alternative sentences would reduce the number of young prisoners by up to 40 percent and would protect them against influences of hard-core criminals serving time in prisons.
Legal experts believe that alternative sentences should be applied especially to young prisoners and women, as well as on those who commit petty crimes. They said it was inconceivable someone who stole a mobile phone would be imprisoned for six years in addition to a number of whiplashes.
It has been noticed that a growing number of judges in various parts of the Kingdom are resorting to alternative punishments.
In a related development, members of the consultative council of the Tarahum Committee in Makkah province held a meeting in the holy city to discuss the issue of substitute punishments. A number of judges, sociologists, psychiatrists, prison officials and academicians attended the meeting, which discussed the pros and cons of the initiative. The participants agreed to hold a number of meetings and submit their recommendations to the governor of Makkah for implementation.
