COMMUNITY SANCTION AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO INCARCERATION IN CRIME REDUCTION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The intractable social menace of crime has remained perennial infliction on humanity. In spite of variously evolved measures to combat crime in society either by reducing it or completely weeding it out, crime wave has been on the increase. Similarly, different penological endeavours or punishment modes have been experimented upon to stem the ever-increasing tide of crime but to no avail. Again, the continuous application of prison-based punishment to all types of offences has proved to be a mistaken penological policy. This research mainly appraised the penological value of community sanction to less violent offenders as alternative to prison-based punishment. It is shown that the application of various community sanction modes to less-violent offenders has multi-value content. Doctrinal method was used in carrying out the study, hence statues, case laws, several books, newspapers, internet sources, magazines, were explored to assemble data/information to deeply elucidate and guide the work. In the course of the work it was found, inter alia, that: Prison-based punishment doesn’t deter, severity of punishment doesn’t accentuate the supposed deterrent value of prison-based punishments, Community service, an aspect of community sanction, is beneficial to the society as well as to the offenders themselves. Other alternatives to prison strategy such as restitution, probation, intensive supervision, etc, should be used as an alternative to prison-based punishment in sanctioning less violent offenders. The study recommended as follows: Community sanction should be adopted in Nigeria legal system as part of her penological policy. Less violent offenders should not be sanctioned to prison sentences to mix with offenders that committed heinous offences; religiously obsessed or religious fanatics should be exposed to a programme of re-orientation to disabuse their minds of the misguided religious indoctrinations that induce them into criminality, etc. Finally, it was concluded that application of Community Sanction as an alternative to incarceration in certain crimes will go a long way in curbing criminality and recidivism in Nigeria criminal justice system and the society.