Khaberni - Over the last 8 years, the modern Jordanian criminal policy has spared 14,136 convicts of various crimes, for the first time, from imprisonment and deprivation of their freedom and provided them with alternative sanctions that contributed to modifying their behavior and giving them another chance in life due to a mistake they made.
According to the Ministry of Justice, 11,181 files were received by the ministry out of 14,136 alternative penalty rulings issued by the competent judicial authorities, with the ministry managing to implement 9,740 of them, leaving 1,441 files still in process.
Jordan's journey with implementing alternative penalties began in 2018, with 7 judgments issued, then 124 in 2019, 286 in 2020, 302 in 2021, 4,193 in 2022, 3,921 in 2023, and 2,392 judgments in 2024.
The Ministry indicated that during the first ten months of this year, the courts issued 2,911 judgments, of which 2,318 were forwarded to the Ministry of Justice, with 1,875 of them being executed and finalized.
The stories of individuals vary in alternative penalties, including a case where the Amman Misdemeanor Court decided to sentence a university student with an alternative penalty to imprisonment, which was reciting and memorizing passages from the Quran, after proving his assault and threat to another individual, with the personal right being waived.
The young man, a university student and the sole breadwinner for his family, fell victim to his reckless behavior when he assaulted and threatened a person and harmed him, but the aggrieved party waived his personal right. With this, the general right fell; therefore, the court decided to give the young man a chance to reform himself with an alternative penalty by sending him to the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs to recite and memorize some Quran verses.
Minister of Justice Dr. Bassam Talhouni said that since the implementation of alternatives to freedom-depriving penalties, a number of convicts have been given a new chance to reform themselves and escape the freedom-depriving penalty, thinking about not repeating the crime. Alternatives to freedom-depriving penalties aim to avoid the negative effects of such penalties by giving individuals convicted of minor crimes an opportunity to remain within the social fabric.
He emphasized that the new and advanced Jordanian criminal policy has contributed to addressing overcrowding in correction and rehabilitation centers, reducing the financial burden on the state treasury, preventing non-repeat offenders from mixing with dangerous ones, and the spread of infection and criminal behavior, steps that have proven effective over the years and that expanding these alternatives according to justice requirements is very important.
He explained that all of this stems from the lofty royal vision, specifically in the sixth discussion paper of His Majesty King Abdullah II, which was titled "Rule of law is the basis of the civil state", and based on this, community correction alternatives were introduced in the recent amendments made to the Penal Code in 2017, where Article "25 repeated" and Article "54 repeated secondly" which stipulated the conditions for their implementation.
He indicated that according to the legislative amendments to the Penal Code for the year 2025, the court has been granted authority in all misdemeanors and in felonies where the penalty does not exceed three years of temporary works or temporary detention except in cases of recurrence, based on a social case report and considering the circumstances of each case independently, to replace the sentenced penalty, even after it has become final, with one or more alternatives to freedom-depriving penalties.
He pointed out that violating the law is sometimes due to a fit of anger or a disturbance in behavior, thus alternatives were found to correct and adjust the behavior of the convicts according to the judicial ruling.
He stated that alternatives to freedom-depriving penalties have significant benefits for the society and the convict, as the convict will not be cut off from his source of livelihood which would burden his family and children. To implement the alternatives, the ministry signed memoranda of understanding with several ministries and official institutions, taking into consideration social gender and people with disabilities, and providing alternatives that suit their categories and specifics.
He said that alternatives to freedom-depriving penalties have become an important part of the modern criminal justice system and have been included in several United Nations memoranda and most international and regional legislations due to their significant positive impact on the society, the individual, and the state.
He explained that the application of alternatives to penalties has left an impact on many families and beneficiaries, with many of them starting to implement the alternatives as per the types and the execution is followed up through a clear, precise, and transparent mechanism via liaison officers assigned for this purpose in the courts; to enable them to supervise and follow up the implementation of these alternatives in coordination with the Directorate of Community Penalties in the ministry.
The Penal Code and its amendments have specified types of alternatives to freedom-depriving penalties, including community service, rehabilitation programs, subjecting the convict to a consented addiction treatment program, electronic monitoring, banning the convict from attending certain places or specified geographical areas, and requiring the convict to reside in his home or the specified geographical area partially or entirely for the period determined by the court, coupled with electronic monitoring.
The amended law for the year 2025 has granted execution judge powers to enforce the sentenced alternatives and he may take appropriate measures to verify the convict's compliance with the execution of alternatives sentenced, as well as the powers to replace any of the sentenced alternatives with other alternatives provided in the law, increase or decrease the duration of the alternative sentenced within the limits of the period set for the same alternative based on the social case report and periodic follow-up reports of the convict, and if the convict fails to execute the alternatives or falls short in executing them for a reason beyond his control or presents an acceptable excuse, the execution judge has the authority to refer the case file back to the court that issued the ruling to consider canceling the freedom-depriving penalty alternative and executing the adjudicated sentence.
The Ministry of Justice, through the Directorate of Community Penalties, has the authority to monitor and supervise the implementation of these alternatives in coordination with the approved and concerned entities, and to raise periodic follow-up reports on the convict's compliance with executing the alternative penalty to the competent judge, and to coordinate with the approved entities in proposing and determining rehabilitation programs and public benefit works, and to periodically update the approved lists of entities that are authorized to execute these alternatives.
And Dr. Talhouni explained, that the role of the liaison officer in applying and implementing these alternatives is represented by preparing a social case report according to a specified model, provided with the case file, which undertakes preparing a report including a case study of the convict and recommending an alternative or more of the alternatives, which is then raised to the court which in turn makes the decision it deems appropriate according to the provisions of the law, and then the execution procedures are completed.
