Why courts should sentence petty offenders to community service

In a recent case in Uganda, a young man was sentenced to four months in prison for stealing a bunch of matooke from a garden. While the crime was certainly punishable, the sentence seems excessively harsh, particularly given the overcrowded and under-resourced conditions of many Ugandan prisons. In such cases, community service as a sentence could be a much more effective and appropriate option.

Community service is a form of punishment that requires offenders to perform unpaid work in their community, typically for a set number of hours. This can range from cleaning public spaces to volunteering at local organisations or helping with community events. 

By requiring offenders to give back to their community in a tangible way, community service has been shown to reduce rates of repeating the offence and provide a more effective form of rehabilitation than prison time alone.

In Uganda, community service has been an important part of the Ugandan criminal justice system for over a decade. The Directorate of Community Service was established in 2010 under the Ministry of Internal Affairs to oversee the implementation of community service as a sentence, and since then it has grown to include a network of officers and volunteers placed at courts across the country.

One of the key advantages of community service is that it can be tailored to the specific needs of each offender and their community. For example, an offender who committed a crime related to drug abuse might be required to participate in a drug education programme or provide support to others struggling with addiction as a peer support person. 

In contrast, a young offender might be
required to perform community service at a local school or youth centre to provide positive role models for younger children.

In addition to being more effective than prison time alone, community service also has significant cost savings for the criminal justice system. According to a 2017 report by the Ugandan Law Society, the cost of housing a single prisoner in Uganda is approximately Shs2.5 million per year, while the cost of implementing community service is much lower. 

By diverting non-violent offenders to community service programmes, the criminal justice system can reduce the strain on prisons and save valuable resources. Also since it’s a process of the offender accepting to own up, they tend not to take a lot of time in court, which helps to reduce case backlog for the judicial officer.

There have been several notable cases in Uganda where community service has been successfully used as a sentence. In one case, a young woman was sentenced to perform community service at a local health clinic after being caught stealing medication. Through her work at the clinic, she was able to gain new skills and knowledge while also making a positive contribution to her community.

While community service is not appropriate for all offenders, it can be an effective and a cheaper  alternative to prison time in many cases. 
In particular, it can be an appropriate sentence for non-violent offenders, young offenders, and those whose crimes are related to substance abuse or other social issues. 

In conclusion,  judicial officers and the players in the justice, law  and order sector should vouch for community service as  a viable alternative to custodial sentences in  Uganda.

Authored by David Muzinda

[email protected] - @Owekyalo on witter.