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CICAD/OAS Group of Experts
in Demand Reduction
Buenos Aires, October 2003
Alternatives to Custodial Sentencing
for young offenders:
the experience in Belize
Ornel Brooks
Belize National Drug Abuse Control Council
(NDACC)
Alternatives to Custodial Sentencing
Why keep offenders out of jail?
• Rise of Prison Populations (Belize,
Caribbean)
– Overcrowding, poor conditions
– Filled with young people, and poor who
cannot pay fines for minor crimes
• Criminal behavior & drug use learned
behind bars
Alternatives to Custodial Sentencing
Why keep offenders out of jail?
• Taking 1st-time offenders out of their
community makes re-entry more
difficult
– Social stigma - they get branded as
criminals
– Lose ties to family, school, employment
History in Belize
Late 1980s:
Looking for options
• By 1986, Belize’s Chief Justice recognized
the need for alternatives as response to
prison overcrowding
• Concept of non-custodial sentencing slowly
gains momentum
History in Belize
1st try with Sentencing Alternatives:
1990-1994
• Strategy: Expand role of probation
• Ultimately did not work
– No legislation
– Only had partial support from judicial sector
– Lack of inter-agency cooperation
History in Belize
2nd try with Sentencing Alternatives:
1996-1999
• Now backed by legislation in the new
Criminal Justice Act (1996)
– Magistrates empowered to issue Community
Service Orders, ‘‘CSOs’’
History in Belize
2nd try with Sentencing Alternatives:
1996-1999
• 2nd try failed due to:
– No monitoring of offender
– Implementing agency (court officials)
overburdened
– No established implementation mechanism
– Lack of training for professionals involved
3rd Try - 2001 Penal System Reform Act
(Alternative Sentences) passed
- Establishes support system:
- National Committee on Community Service
(NCCS)
- A separate Alternatives to Custody Department:
Community Rehabilitation Department (CRD)
- District Committees on Community Service (DCCS)
- Amends previous acts, specifying eligibility
- Broadens scope of which courts can issue
CSOs, including family court, juvenile court
Community Rehabilitation Department
• Under the Ministry of Human Development, Women
and Children and Civil Society
• Primary focus:
– rehabilitation of offenders
– diversion of offenders from custodial care
– oversee probationers
– assuring a continuum of care through the
community service process
– social reinsertion
– prevent recidivism
• Coordinates the District Committees on Community
Service (DCCS) established under the Alternative
Sentences Act
Role of National Committee on Community Service
(NCCS)
• Made up of a cadre of concerned individuals from various
sectors of the community:
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Chief Magistrate, Supreme Court Judge, & Family Court magistrate
Chief Prosecutor
Superintendant of Prisons
Police Commissioner
Director of the Community Rehabilitation Department
Ministry of municipal governments
Ministry of Health
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Youth
NGO nominee
Private sector nominee
University of Belize
Role of National Committee on Community Service
(NCCS)
• Tasked to assist the Community Rehabilitation
Department in:
– monitoring the development of community service
orders
– management of cases through the system
– Re-insertion of offenders in the community
2001 Penal System Reform Act
(Alternative Sentences)
Types of offences eligible for alternatives:
• Theft
• Minor drug possession
• Common assault
• 1st offence for drug use
• The Juvenile Offenders Act has increased
the work of the court as all persons under 18
must be considered for alternatives (for all
offenses)
2001 Penal System Reform Act
(Alternative Sentences)
This is NOT for:
• Drug dealers
• Drug traffickers
• Murderers
• Rapists
• Repeat offenders
• Major crimes
2001 Penal System Reform Act
(Alternative Sentences)
Alternatives to custodial sentencing
that are available to the court:
– Discharge the offender
– Pass a suspended sentence
– Issue a community service order
2001 Penal System Reform Act
(Alternative Sentences)
• KEY: courts can sentence a drug offender to
rehabilitation services in the community
(or in cases where custodial sentence cannot be avoided, the
offender can be sentenced to rehabilitative service in prison)
• Act provides that the court may make a
combination order:
• a combination of one or more community service
orders (CSO)
• a CSO and a fine or a custodial sentence
• can include provisions to attend substance abuse
counselling, resume schooling, etc.
Community Rehabilitation Officer (CRO)
The CRO works locally with:
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Drug council officers/counselors
Education officers/teachers
Family members
Counseling services
Police
Magistrates
Elements for Success
• Once it is decided by the court to make a CSO the
Magistrate or Judge then has to rely on the
Community Rehabilitation Officer, who has the legal
responsibility to properly supervise an offender
• In order for the CRO to succeed he has to work with
the Police and other relevant agencies such as
National Drug Abuse Control Council with the
ultimate goal being that of rehabilitation and
reinsertion
• INTER-AGENCY COORDINATION AND
COMMUNITY SUPPORT IS KEY!
District Committees on Community Service
(DCCS)
• Operating in all 6 districts
• Each DCCS is made up of:
– one salaried Community Rehabilitation Officer
(CRO) (3 in Belize City)
– the NDACC officer in each district
– police
– education
– social service providers
– volunteer community workers
Progress
Progress
• National Training Seminars
– to sensitize the public and essential players of the Penal
System Reform Act and its legal significance
– to create national awareness on the merits of the
Community Service Order
– Held in June and August 2003
– funded by UNICEF and the OAS respectively.
– Participants: National Committee, District Committee,
Magistrates, police officers, prosecutors, CROs, educators,
and other community service providers
Progress
Progress
• Community Service Handbook
– An operational manual for the
implementation of the Penal System
Reform Act, in a collaborative role with the
CRD
– It is also a handbook to train public
officials, NGOs, and other community
service providers
– Supported by UNICEF
Elements for Success
• Community service ensures punishment for an offence
in a way that serves the community’s need and at the
same time the rehabilitation of the offender
• Eligibility depends on:
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The magistrate or judge’s decision
type and nature of the offence
availability of appropriate community service placement
suitability of the offender for a CSO- which is obtained from
the pre-sentencing social report prepared by the CRO for the
court
– consent of the offender to the CSO
Progress
Progress
• In all 6 districts, judges are now
handing out significantly more CSOs
than probation/suspended sentences,
favouring CSOs up to 40:1
Next Steps
• Continued training on the district level is
needed to prepare key players
• Opportunities for community service
placement require formal agreements
between local agencies
• Regional cooperation is needed to enable
sharing of best practices in Alternative (NonCustodial) Sentencing