ALTERNATIVES TO IMPRISONMENT PART SIX Alternatives to imprisonment In some countries, offenders are sent to prison for a wide array of minor offences, ranging from using abusive language to operating without a valid business licence or unlawful trespassing. Not only is this a disproportionate response to the nature of the crime committed, but such policies contribute to serious overcrowding. For many offenders, a prison sentence – with its often damaging influences and effects – is not the appropriate response, and a non-custodial alternative that effectively addresses the root causes of offending should be used instead. The Tokyo Rules require all countries to develop non-custodial measures within their legal systems, such as conditional discharges, status penalties, economic sanctions like fines, suspended or deferred sentences, house arrest, probation or judicial supervision, community service/unpaid work, attendance centres, drug treatment and hospital orders. Unfortunately, there is very little empirical data available at the global level on the use of community sanctions. This lack of data, itself indicative of the lack of attention given to non-custodial options, hinders the observation of trends in the use of alternatives and makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the relationship between alternatives and the use of prison. 40 | The SPACE II project, created by the Council of Europe, collects information on persons serving non-custodial and semi-custodial sanctions and measures. This data shows that an increase in the use of community sentencing does not automatically equate to a reduction in the use of imprisonment. The growing use of alternatives brings risks as well as benefits, such as net-widening – which can result from less serious offenders, who might previously have received financial or other penalties, being instead given community penalties. In order to better understand these trends and risks, more systematic collection and dissemination of data on community sentences is needed at the global level. This is no easy task, given the complications posed by different legal frameworks and sentence definitions. However, the SPACE II framework could provide a useful template,411 and there is also a new initiative – the Supervision Around the World Project412 – which started in 2018 and which aims to gather data on the global picture of communitybased sanctions. In the past year, efforts were undertaken in several countries to encourage the use of non-custodial alternatives. For example, in Russia the government considered measures to allow prisoners convicted of non-felony offences to work instead of serving out their sentence in prison,413 and in the Philippines, the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights recommended community service instead of jail terms for minor offenders.414 A bill was passed in the Romanian parliament allowing for people sentenced to less than five years to serve their sentences at home or by staying in prison at weekends.415 Other countries have introduced new kinds of alternative sanctions. In the Netherlands, the Hack Right programme enables young cyber criminals to work with IT departments in the private sector,416 to help them develop their IT skills and to use these skills in later life without the burden of a criminal conviction. The objective is to reduce reoffending by providing employment opportunities. Probation – or ‘community supervision’, as it is known in some countries – has seen a huge rise during recent years. In the US, one in 55 adults are on probation or parole,417 while in Australia, national community corrections grew by 32 per cent between 2007 and 2018.418 Despite this, there is still a need for more evidence and research to inform the development of effective probation services. This is in spite of the considerable energy and resources deployed by donor and delivery organisations and by beneficiary jurisdictions, often in the face of scarce resources. In England and Wales, the partial privatisation of probation services was recently deemed to Penal Reform International and Thailand Institute of Justice | Global Prison Trends 2019