Alternatives to Imprisonment, a Solution to Reforming the Perpetrator

Abstract

In the 19th century, which witnessed the emergence of criminological ideas and attention to the knowledge of the roots of crime and the approach of fighting the causes and not the effects of crime, a fundamental change occurred in the purpose of punishing the perpetrators. From now on, reforming and re-socializing the perpetrators and fighting the causes of crime was the main goal of punishment. However, there was not much change in the method and type of punishment and prison remained the common tool and method of punishing criminals. With the passage of time and the experience of countries in the use of the maximum prison sentence, there was no noticeable change in achieving the goal of reducing the number of crimes. Therefore, from now on, the prison sentence was faced with serious questions and challenges. Criminology thinkers came up with a new solution to deal with criminals, for which the idea of humanism and a reform-oriented approach in to criminal policy was put forward as an idea. The product of this effort is to achieve diversity and variety of society's reaction against lawbreakers, one of which is referred to as "alternatives to prison".  Afghanistan's criminal justice system, influenced by modern criminal ideas and learning from other countries, introduced prison alternatives officially and broadly into the criminal justice system in 2016. This article has discussed and analyzed the theoretical framework, the reasons for turning from prison and rehabilitative punishment to "alternatives", as well as the public and private conditions of using alternatives to imprisonment, the mechanism of its executive guarantee, and the positive effects of this type of reaction. In addition to explaining "deprivation of social rights" as one of the alternative examples of imprisonment, in the legal and judicial penal policy of Afghanistan, it has been explored and evaluated. In this study, the efficiency and effectiveness of the new policy towards the perpetrators and its reformative effect have been evaluated more than prison punishment.