Judges and academics discussing ways to better integrate convicted criminals back into social life and address prison overcrowding have suggested extending the use of community service punishments. Gathered at a Riyadh seminar on Saturday organized by the Center for Research Excellence in the Fiqh of Contemporary Issues at Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University, researchers noted studies from international organizations on the benefits of alternative punishments in the fight against crime and its effects on society. Recent community service sentences were praised as positive alternatives to jail or lashes, such as in the case of two teenagers ordered to clean 26 mosques and serve the endowment administration of their town for two hours a day as an alternative to the original sentence of eight months in jail and 100 lashes. In other similar sentences, a man was instructed to dig several graves in his town, and a drug addict was obliged to receive treatment for addiction at a medical center. Abdulaziz Bin Muhammad Al-Hujailan, a lecturer at Qassim University, said penal laws were different from punishments for violating the laws of Allah, giving Shariah Law the flexibility needed to cope with advancements and counter all forms of crime and deviation. “Alternative punishments can prevent the effects of inmates charged with a variety of crimes mixing with each other in prison, and can train convicted people for work and help them acquire job skills that serve them when they complete their sentences,” Al-Hujailan said. “Enforcing work as a punishment would also improve the mental state of convicted persons and help them integrate back into society without any notable psychological effects,” he added. The seminar was attended by numerous individuals involved in the workings of the judicial system and prisons.
