Factors Affecting the Use of Community Service Sentence Orders among Magistrates as Alternative to Imprisonment in Kinondoni Municipality, Tanzania

Abstract

This paper is based on a study that attempted to explore factors affecting the use of community service    sentence orders as alternative to imprisonment in Kinondoni Municipality, Tanzania. The study was based on the ground that, while a growing number of empirical studies have revealed that prison sentence is not a human rights friendly kind of punishment in a civilized country like Tanzania, disappointingly it remains the most  preferred and utilized penalty by most courts. Subsequently, thousands of convicted minor and non-recidivist criminals continued to be sentenced toprisons .Therefore, it is apparent that the community service sentence which was perceived as one of the effective alternatives to imprisonment, remains under-utilized ,resulting into  prisons congestions .  This study, therefore, explored factors affecting the use of community service    sentence orders among magistrates as alternative to imprisonment in Tanzania. The qualitative approach guided by interpretive paradigm and exploratory design in formed this paper. The study consisted of twenty (20) participants   who were purposively selected from seven courts of law .The participants included community service officers and magistrates. The in-depth interview was used to capture primary data while   secondary data were captured using documentary review. The collected data were analyzed using thematic analysis .The findings revealed that there is lack of confidence of the general public and the courts on community service as a form of punishment since it is perceived to be lenient kind of punishment. Also the limited public awareness on the existence of community service sentence, limited knowledge on the eligibility criteria for community service offenders and corruptions were identified as major factors affecting the use of community service sentence. In light of the findings ,this paper  recommends that  social workers as human rights advocates should  aggressively  conduct awareness raising campaigns against overreliance  of  imprisonment  by  some magistrates as a form of punishment particularly  for petty   and non-recidivist offenders .The government should allocate  adequate budget to facilitate regular trainings with honorable magistrates to remind them the available options including the use of community service sentence. There is also need of increasing funding to the Community Service Department to facilitate smooth implementation of the community service orders.